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
These are the same people the liberals want us to believe are starving to death.
I miss the drive-ins. We have to drive 60 miles to see one.
I am not poor by any means, but I don't have a big-screen TV, cable or satellite dish. We have a 25 inch screen and get 4 local channels. On the other hand, our house is wired with CAT-5 cable to every room, we have DSL and 3 computers on-line and conduct business using them. I don't work from home but my wife does. I don't need the big-screen or cable to waste any more time. I base most of my decisions on whether it will benefit my family.
Then they watch PBS, NBC, ABC, and CBS. It is not the TV. It is the programming.
Lesson for today: Most poor people are poor for a reason. If they will only learn and change their habits, they will become as wealthy as those new habits cause.
Speak TRUTH....NEVER have your 'letter to the editor' published...LOL......
A very astute observation, atomicpossum.
In my church, I work with people who consider themselves poor. Most are not truly poor in the sense of lacking in resources; they just cannot pay their bills. No matter how much money they make, it is never enough for their wants.
The strange thing is that none of them has a strong sense of cause-and-effect. They seem not to see how their actions today might affect them tomorrow. If they see something they want, they will charge it to the credit card without pausing to think how they might pay for it. Lacking specific long-term goals, they drift through life, taking the path of least resistance from one crisis to the next.
As a serviceman I see this everyday. It bothered me so much that for a couple of years now I will not work for anyone who is on section 8 or the owners of houses who rent section 8. The only exception is the elderly on section 8. I have my own company and yet I would go to people who had a newer car and better house than I own. And I was paying their rent with my tax dollars. What hurt me most was what I saw with the children. They had material things but neglect and abuse, was there. When most of these people were finally thrown out of their house for nonpayment of something or another, usually utilities, they would just leave most of the kids things behind. That along with six months worth of garbage that easily could have been thrown out, if they could get out of bed on garbage day. I have seen this over and over for twenty years.
The only way I could find a way to sleep at night was to do something drastic. My voice mail now says if you are going to bash Bush I won't work for you. Some how this act of defiance produced a miracle. Since I stopped working for democrats now I have customers who are there when they say they will be, and they pay their bills. Maybe this is why Scripture tells us that those who won't work shouldn't eat.
Sorry whacko's. If you have money to piss away and buy a big screen TV, you aint poor. Not even close to it.
I have 3 TV's and 5 computers...I must be lower middle class.
Not necessarily. The rich can be as feckless as the poor. After the civil war most of the planter class never got back on top. Economic power passed to middle-class storeowners. Hint. Watch "Gone with the Wind" again.
and the liberals want a tax on our phone bills and internet service to buy them pcs. i had to buy mine with $ I EARNED!!!!
What chance in life, realistically, does even a top-performing student from, say, Harlem have? He will likely be forced into some low-paying job to support his family, regardless of his own dreams. If he goes to college, he'll be woefully underprepared for the rigors of academic life...god knows I was and I went to an excellent high school...and likely drop out or perform poorly, leaving him in knee-high debt. And, if he succeeds in spite of these odds, he's left in a new world. No money management skills, no family support, few friends of his stature.
There needs to be a way to get the outstanding kids away from the dregs who will do nothing but keep them down.
You said: So...the poor are often poor because of their own bad judgement??
The poor, or at least many of them, REMAIN poor because of bad judgment. We all see it all the time. The poor buy name brands instead of house brands. Many fail to value education, even in govt schools.
There are many who just plain stupid. Nothing you can do for them, but give them a shovel or a mop. Most, though, can, if motivated, CAN achieve. But not while watching TV.
The tech support community is glad to hear this, at least I would've been when I was working the phones.
Madden 2006, NBA Jam, etc. are all better on console games.
And besides, Grand Theft Auto comes out on Playstation first.
My dad, in his work as a minister, often encountered people who were nearly starving, hardly able to pay their bills, relying solely on government aid to make ends meet, who invariably had at least one TV, and often had cable service attached to it...
Hardly an economic divide... I'd go with the "social" angle...
Give, and it shall be given unto you. The poor say : "I can't give cause I don't have any money." But the rich say, "No, you don't have any money because you don't give". It is a spiritual law of prosperity.
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