Posted on 08/31/2005 1:39:49 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch
POOR IN JUDGMENT
Daily Policy Digest
ECONOMIC ISSUES
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
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Is the "digital divide" simply a "cultural divide?" New Census Bureau data show that the poor have cash to spend on computers, but they choose instead to spend it on big-screen TVs, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).
Little-noticed data still trickling out from the last U.S. census shows that the poor shun PCs and other valuable information gear for entertainment toys. In fact, their spending on color TVs -- including big-screen TVs -- is on par with the rich.
Consider:
More than 34 percent of poor own two color TVs compared with 33 percent of the rich, according to the latest Census Bureau tables; and more than half own two or more color TVs. What's more, fully 1 in 4 poor households have a large-screen TV (versus 2 in 5 wealthy households). Nearly 65 percent of the poor in this country have cable or satellite hooked up to their boob tubes. And a whopping 74 percent have a VCR or DVD player. Money spent on such toys (to say nothing of Blockbuster film rentals and video games), meanwhile, is not being spent on tools that could lift them out of poverty, says IBD.
According to the census:
Less than 20 percent of the poor own a PC, and just 15 percent have access to the Internet and its vast treasure of knowledge. In contrast, 83 percent of upper-income Americans own at least one PC, and 74 percent are online. As the government's own data bear out, a great many low-income Americans are poor in technology largely because they're poor in judgment - and they're just hurting themselves, says IBD.
Source: Editorial, "Poor In Judgment," Investor's Business Daily, August 31, 2005.
For text (subscription required):
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20
For U.S. Census Bureau data:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html
They don't call it the boob tube for nothing.
So...the poor are often poor because of their own bad judgement??
Whoda thunkit?
The definition of "poor" should exclude people who have cash to buy computers or big-screen TVs.
That is why they are poor.
Our poor have the expectation of 'right here, right now.' There's no planning for the future, only short-term gratification. Which, predictably, is why they remain poor.
Divide? What divide?
And it IS NOT the man keeping them down.
Not only that, but they probably watch Jim Lehrer...
Someone needs to explain to the poor that they can play cool computer ganes on PC's.
No kidding...
I love all the "poor folks" in the ghetto with $5K in tires and wheels om their car....
How can you be poor with 22" spinners?
Haven't we all known that MUCH of the reason many people from poverty stay in poverty is cultural?
Jesus said "you will always have the poor." But it is pretty hard to see someone as poor who owns a big screen tv and gets cable.
that and the fact that the government pays them to remain poor (with your/my tax dollars)
There used to be one of those motivational millionaires who was always on TV hawking his how to make a million seminar. I think his name was Anthony Roberts.
The smartest thing I ever heard came out of that guys mouth. He said "watch what poor people do and don't do it."
When I had a little, penny annny job, I bought myself another laptop. I scrape enough money together for cable modem fees. I'm a poor person with priorities :o)
If by magic all the money from the rich got transferred to the poor, those rich people would be rich again within a few years and the poor would be poor again. (Assuming of course they didn't take the Commie approach and just shoot the rich)
If someone can afford to buy a big-screen TV, they are not poor.
The poor poor! Mabee they outa get a job instead of big mo-fo TV?
Coulda' swore the official flower of the trailer park was the Satellite Dish.
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