Are Our 37 Million Poor Really Poor?

Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2007 | Bill Steigerwald

[BlessedBeGod]

Bump!!!

[SauronOfMordor]

One thing not mentioned is how many of the "poor" supplement their "official" income with undeclared income (either from criminal activity or just working off the books)

I have to drive through "inner city" areas to get to visit my daughter, and I'm struck by how many nice cars I see there

[generally]

Excellent article. Should be required reading for any “anti-poverty” activist and anyone who votes on poverty issues.

[AppyPappy]

Not to mention that many of the “poor” are actually elderly living on a fixed income. My in-laws were “poor” and they lived on a farm. They just had little income because most of their money was sheltered.

[GeronL]

and welfare is never calculated into it either

[elizabetty]

American’s poor are the world’s rich.

[Joe Boucher]

There are poor folks in the U.S. BUT if you’ve traveled in any third world country you would find that the poor here live like the rest of the worlds middle class.

[gilor]

Strange...todays poor do have something to eat, and do have color TVs.

[Carbonado]

Once the Lib filth is already out in front of this. The preferred term for the filth is now “inequality”.

Just think of it as the little cousin of the word “fair”.

The filth of Liberalism metastasizes in new directions every day. They know instinctively that they need to continually repackage and redefine their poison in order to get people to imbibe it.

Go to Poland or Estonia and try stringing together those ridiculous Lib arguments without getting pummeled by those who had the opportunity to live in such a “peoples paradise” as envisioned by the Libs.

[Proverbs 3-5]

Reminds me of my wife's nephew in West Virginia. He's a good young man who doesn't drink or do drugs. But he's lazy and won't leave home and his parents want him to stay.

He has a degree but is working in a plant (should be laid off this week) with his dad with low pay and no benefits. But all he wants is enough money to spend on E-bay since his parents pay for everything.

He always reminds me of the fable of the grasshopper and the ants.

I've suggested he leave WV and he won't do it. I've given him the names of people I know that would have hired him locally for his degree and he won't call them. I've given him links on USAJobs for careers he qualifies for and he won't apply.

So even though he has everything he needs and wants, because he's making minimum wage, gets laid off at least once a year (whuch makes him happy), has no insurance etc I'm sure he's considered "poor." Never mind the fact that he is exactly where he wants to be in life.

[Hardastarboard]

Generally, they will be families that have a whole lot of behavioral issues in addition to mere economic issues -- possibly drug problems, mental problems, certainly very low work effort, probably unmarried mothers and so forth.

I've been saying on this forum for a long time that people are generally poor because they do stupid things, and make stupid decisions.

Q: You don't make these numbers up -- you rely on information provided by the Census Bureau. So how does this myth of the poor never seem to be debunked or straightened out in the media?

Because the MSM is filled with Marxist enemies of America who are economic illiterates that want to re-distribute incomes from productive citizens to the (un)deserving. That's why.

[Proverbs 3-5]

Some in my wife's family in West Virginia work on the side earning money that is not reported so their "benefits" aren't cut. Others don't get married for the same reason even though they have kids. Government programs in some cases basically makes liars and cheaters out of otherwise honest people.

Some government programs remind me of drug dealers at schools that hand out little bits of drugs to kids to get them hooked.

[Phlap]

As compared to an Asian making less than a buck a day, no! As compared to Al Gore, yes!

[TheBattman]

Mr. Rector is obviously a racist - how else could he be so against welfare (/sarcasm).

Seriously, I would wager that he gets called a racist a lot...but his word ring very true.

[gulfcoast6]

I have yet to see that someone has starved to death in America.

[Harrius Magnus]

You should really try to help him by working on his parents, IMHO.

[Proverbs 3-5]

You should really try to help him by working on his parents, IMHO.

I have! They don't want him to leave home and are content for him to live day to day. I've asked them all what happens when the parents are gone and they all just shrug their shoulders...

[Ronin]

Whenever you have people who are paid to feed the poor, you will have people who will NOT be paid if there are no poor people to feed. So they wil make sure they find some. Even if that means defining poverty up to unrealistic levels.

[driftless2]

"West Virginia"

Not to pick on West Virginians but it seems Big Media loves to travel to West Virginia when they want to do a story on the nation's impoverished. In the past they'd visit some town in WV and interview a few locals who'd bemoan the lack of jobs. My reaction to their whining about no jobs is for them MOVE! to places where there are jobs.