Posted on 09/11/2007 7:20:45 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation is a national authority on poverty and the U.S. welfare system. Specializing in welfare reform and family breakdown, Rector has done extensive research on the economic and social costs of welfare.
Q: John Edwards and others lament that 37 million Americans struggle with incredible poverty every day. You say it is not so simple or accurate to think of them as truly poor. What do you mean?
A: Well, when John Edwards says that one in eight Americans do not have enough money for food, shelter or clothing, that’s generally what the average citizen is thinking about when they hear the word “poverty.” But if that’s what we mean by poverty, then virtually none of these 37 million people that are ostensibly poor are actually poor. In reality, the government runs multiple surveys that allow us to examine the physical living conditions of these individuals in great detail.
When you look at the people who John Edwards insists are poor, what you find is that the overwhelming majority of them have cable television, have air conditioning, have microwaves, have two color TVs; 45 percent of them own their own homes, which are typically three-bedroom homes with 1{1/2} baths in very good recondition. On average, poor people who live in either apartments or in houses are not crowded and actually have more living space than the average person living in European countries, such as France, Italy or England.
snip
Q: Despite how many trillions being spent?
A: Since the beginning of the War on Poverty we have now spent over 11 trillion dollars.
Snip
(Excerpt) Read more at 560wind.townhall.com ...
There’s a housing project in my area with the entire side of the building covered in satellite dishes.
There is no doubt in my mind that the poor in the appallachians are really, really, poor...but as for our urban poor...
Here is my observation...I recently witnessed “homeless” guy who is a regular panhandler and has several, visible, physical ailments filling up his nice GMC Silverado truck at an Exxon station not far from where he walks the median... our urban poor...are not all that often “poor”...in the third world since.
Also, remember that our poor once upon a time in their life...probably had the opportunity to “not” be poor...and many still have that opportunity but are either too lazy or too dependent on the system to do anything about their condition.
However, there truly are very, very, poor people in the rural portions of Kentucky etc...Oprah should spend some of her cash there instead of third world hell holes.
My friends live in one of those projects. Mine is the oldest car in the parking lot when I visit.
No!
You want poor, go to Haiti, or many parts of Africa.
Really, what’s the excuse for anyone that doesn’t have basic food, shelter, and medicine?
That’s what all these programs are for - stop harping on it, the people that don’t have these things ARE CHOOSING NOT TO HAVE THEM.
The US “poverty line” is 20x the world median income.
If you’re making more than half the people on the planet, you’re not poor.
“Mine is the oldest car in the parking lot when I visit.”
And the leftists will say we aren’t buying these new cars.
Pay for MY housing and food, and I’ll go buy a car and tell you that you didn’t pay for it...
One day I tried helping a family who was “poor” (backstory irrelevant).
The home was reasonably spacious, if sparsely furnished.
I went there to fix the couch.
While stapling the couch back together, one kid came down and asked if I had some clear plastic to cover a window with.
They had torn out the screen from the window, you see.
I said “no”.
I looked at the damaged couch.
I thought about the ripped screen.
I considered why the couch was damaged and the screen torn.
I left.
In most of the rest of the world what we call "poor" is fabulously wealthy.
Where the real poverty is among our "poor" is the space between their ears. Thinking is difficult. Edwards and most of the paternalistic Democrats will make that worse, not better.
My brother had some extra sweet corn that he wanted to donate to a local shelter. The people running the place asked him if he would shuck it, because “the people we’d give it to are too lazy to do that”.
are children that aren’t old enough to have jobs counted in the 37 million?
what about CEOs that rake in a whopping $1 in salary?
The Census Bureau tell us that we have 37 million households with an INCOME less than $20,000 a year. (does the census bureau verify the income or is it self reported numbers?)
“But it doesn’t count virtually any welfare income as income. So food stamps, public housing, Medicaid — all of the $600 billion that we spend assisting poor people (per year) is not counted as income when they go to determine whether a family is poor.”
Since most of the people below the poverty levels are women and children and none of the government assistance is counted as income, is the $25 Billion dollars collected for child support counted as income for the women and children? Earned income tax credits are for single women and children, is this counted as income?
37 million poor people and we spend $600 Billion on them. How much is that per person?
After a summer of free handouts from tourists the chipmunks will forget how to feed themselves. Then, in September, most of the tourists and the free handouts all go away. The chipmunks become nasty and surly. Many starve to death. To prefer free handouts to working is perfectly natural and entirely expected behavior.
To be “poor” in America, is to be infinitely better off than perhaps 99% of humanity in the rest of the world. And the phony “liberals” know it, or they would run screaming from the confines of this country.
Poverty is a decision. Everybody is about as wealthy, or as poor, as they want to be. Should each of a random 100 or so of these “poor” people be given $1,000,000 today, within two years 98 of them would be just as “poor” as they were before the initial gift. Just look at the record of big lottery winners. Sure, they race out and spend it on big-ticket items, but do they invest it in any wisely considered growth assets? No, because they do not RESPECT the power of money.
Certain rules have always applied to the accumulation of weealth. One of which is, spend less than you receive in compensation for the hours of your day. No matter if you receive $1,000 an hour compensation, if you end up spending $1,001 an hour, you shall be in debt by the end of the year.
Another is, to sell the time you have on earth for the greatest amount your circle of acquaintances will allow you to. If you are selling a unique service or product, and it is in great demand, you shall be rewarded well. Regardless of the economic system under which you live. If you have a competitor, then the compensation is settled by the choices made by this same circle of acquaintances.
If you have a very common commodity or service, then of course, not much will be offered for it, as anyone could be your competitor.
But once having accumulated some capital from the fruits of your earnings, the next task is to use that capital as a tool, to motivate people to either continue to purchase goods or services from you, or to go out and invest in the sale of their time so that they may offer other relatively unique goods and services of their own.
Capitalism 101. Those who will not, or cannot, learn those simple truths are doomed to be forever envious of those who do.
You only sell one thing in this world, and that is your time. You only buy one thing, and that is your satisfaction.
“My brother had some extra sweet corn that he wanted to donate to a local shelter. The people running the place asked him if he would shuck it, because “the people we’d give it to are too lazy to do that”.”
Rebecca: Are you the ones leaveing the muffing pieces behind our shelter?
Elaine: You been enjoying them?
Rebecca: They’re just stumps.
Elaine: Well they’re perfectly edible.
Rebecca: Oh, so you just assume that the homeless will eat them, they’ll eat anything?
Mr. Lippman: No no, we just thought...
Rebecca: I know what you thought. They don’t have homes, they don’t have jobs, what do they need the top of a muffin for? They’re lucky to get the stumps.
Elaine: If the homeless don’t like them the homeless don’t have to eat them.
Rebecca: The homeless don’t like them.
Elaine: Fine.
Rebecca: We’ve never gotten so many complaints. Every two minutes, “Where is the top of this muffin? Who ate the rest of this?”
Elaine: We were just trying to help.
Rebecca: Why don’t you just drop off some chicken skins and lobster shells.
The poor need to start paying their fair share.
Elaine: “If only he could have been cheating on his wife, you know, things would have been so much simpler.”
George: “Who’s this, Blue Arrow?”
Elaine: “Green Lantern.”
Jerry: “We found out his super power was lack of money.”
Elaine: “All right.”
Jerry: “He’s invulnerable to creditors.”
Elaine: “We get it.”
Jerry: “He’s the ‘Got-no-Green’ Lantern.”
Elaine: “Thank you.”
Jerry: “Hey, Elaine. Maybe his girlfriend is Lois Loan.”
Elaine, leaving: “Well crafted.”
George: “Hey, maybe this cheating thing is what I could use to ditch Maura.”
Jerry: “Sure, just tell Maura you’re having an affair.”
George, now on the same side as the booth of Jerry, with Elaine’s side
vacant: “She’s like a district attorney. If it’s not the truth, I’ll break
under the cross. I actually have to do it.”
Jerry: “Could you move over there?”
[George reluctantly switches sides, so they’re facing each other]
George: “Hey, you know, there’s this secretary at work that always had a
crush on me.”
Jerry: “Really? How come you never pursued her before?”
George: “She’s too tan. It’s the middle of the winter, she’s like a carrot.”
Elaine, coming back into Monk’s: “Did I leave my glasses here?”
Jerry, to Elaine: “He can wipe out his checking account in a single bound!”
Elaine, leaving again: “Keep ‘em!”
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