Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox

national review ^ | July 18, 2011 | Ken McIntyre

[kiki04]

When Americans think of poverty, we tend to picture people who can’t adequately shelter, clothe, and feed themselves or their families.

When the Census Bureau defines “poverty,” though, it winds up painting more than 40 million Americans — one in seven — as “poor.”

Census officials continue to grossly exaggerate the numbers of the poor, creating a false picture in the public mind of widespread material deprivation, writes Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Robert Rector in a new paper.

“Most news stories on poverty feature homeless families, people living in crumbling shacks, or lines of the downtrodden eating in soup kitchens,” Rector says. “The actual living conditions of America’s poor are far different from these images.”

Congress is tying itself in knots figuring out how to cut spending and bring down a $14 trillion national debt. Lawmakers might well take a much closer look at the nearly a trillion dollars spent each year on welfare even though many recipients aren’t what the typical American would recognize as poor and in need of government assistance.

What is poverty? Americans might well be surprised to learn from other government data that the overwhelming majority of those defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau were well-housed and adequately fed even in the recession year 2009. About 4 percent of them did temporarily become homeless.

[I am Richard Brandon]

"Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox"

Time for an activist group to sue for a realistic official definition of poverty.

[FourPeas]

Who among us doesn't have stories of being in the grocery store watching people with buying junk food with cash and then using WIC to buy their milk, bread, etc.?

Or, kids who receive free lunches who take expensive ballet classes?

Or people on welfare who have cable TV, a blu-ray player, a computer, and spend their days not looking for work, but playing on-line subscription games?

Or, people who exist on finding government program after government program to pay them to live without any accountability?

Or, senior citizens who are repeatedly given medical supplies even though they clearly express that they don't need them (and have family members there to back them up) by medical personnel that assure them it's OK since it's only the government's money.

The whole system is broken. It can't be scrapped over night, but the sooner it's started the better. Not raising the debt ceiling may be the best place to start.

[nascarnation]

I’m very dubious about those stats.
Big screen tv at 18%?

Try 75%.

[from occupied ga]

if we give the poor everything they need or want

Can't be done. There isn't any upper limit on want or "need" (as in I need a car, health care, flatscreen tv, etc). You give the parasites one thing, and immediately they want more.

[FourPeas]

Very true. I know some of these people and to them gaming the system is just part of what is expected in life. Getting the most one can get from whomever is seen as an accomplishment worthy of bragging.

[lonestar]

Kids on free breakfast/lunch get fed first. If there is enough, the other kids get to buy their meals. Most food is thrown away by kids on “free” lunch.

[ClearCase_guy]

The biggest Liberal I know is gainfully employed but claims to pay virtually no taxes. He has his own business and claims to write off so much stuff that last year he paid a total of $300 to Uncle Sam. And much of his income comes from subsidies related to "green technology", so his income goes up as gov't spending in this area grows. He's goes on great vacations and owns many toys. He's doing well -- probably because he's not paying the taxes I have to pay.

He laughs about it all the time. Very proud of himself. And if you show him a proposal for expansion of government, he is all for it, every time. Why not?? It's not going to cost him anything!

[BlatherNaut]

“And check out the shoes and the cell phones and the pants half down to the knees”

Those pants appear to defy gravity. Do they attach them to their underwear with velcro or something?

[Pan_Yan]

I had to tell my girls we could not buy them a DS for their birthday, because they are too expensive.

Goodwill for clothes, flea markets for tools and toys, coupon clipping for food. We know exactly how you feel. But we are raising our children to be self sufficient, hard working and honest. My kids go to church every Sunday. My daughter can shoot and my son knows how to live on what's in his backpack. They will be good employees, good citizens and good Christians.

The mom you referenced is not. She has crippled her children far more than she'll ever know. Don't envy them for what they get for free now, pity them for what they will become later.

[Straight Vermonter]

She had good company.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor (29 November 1766)

[kcvl]

[GatorGirl]

We have a program that delivers free lunches to kids who would get free lunch during the school year.

Hello, it’s not like 100% of their parents are not on food stamps! They can’t even be expected to provide for their own kids when they are out of school.

We now have free breakfast in many districts, watch out we’ll probably start sending boxed dinners home as well so no child “will go to bed hungry”. Boo freaking hoo!

[MrB]

The truth is that “the poor” are just a weapon of the communists to further their control/power goals.

This is why the real issues are never discussed, and if you try, you’re called a “racist” and told to shut up.

[cyberstoic]

“The mom you referenced is not. She has crippled her children far more than she’ll ever know. Don’t envy them for what they get for free now, pity them for what they will become later.”

No, pity the rest of us as we pay ad naseum for their prison care, their free medical care, their disability, their food, their housing, the cost of policing for solving the crimes they do, the cost of their victims and on and on.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

44 Million on Food Stamps, 50.1 Million on Welfare, (And growing daily) and each are given large cash allowances, unlimited food, Medical, vehicle, housing paid for and they even get free wide band Internet. They live better than we do.

And guess who they will vote for? No wonder Obama’s popularity is still way too high this late in the game.

[MrB]

You are doing far more to “help” your kids than any liberal who promotes the welfare state ever could or would.

I really despise sheeperals who promote the welfare state because they do it for no other reason than to make themselves feel good about themselves without actually expending any personal effort or sacrifice.

Did I mention I despise these non-thinking libs?
In case there’s a question, I despise them, yes indeed.

[lonestar]

We have "churches" that provide lunches during the summer. By reputation, they rip off the government.

At election time the same "churches" have breakfast fund-raisers for Democrats.

No --it's just a pigment of our imaginaitons!--if you get my drift.

[ctdonath2]

US poverty line is 20x world median income.

If you’re making more - a lot more - than half the people on the planet, you’re not poor.

[frogjerk]

Poor neighbors with Blackberries, Nintendo DSs, Dish Network, etc... PING

[lwd]

The federal govt has been driving a food truck out to the “poor” area of town where I live feeding the children. It’s teaching these kids to be dependent on government, like their pathetic parent(s). I’m sorry but these kids should know what it’s like to be hungry. I’m not saying they should starve to death but it would do them some good to know what it’s like to go without. My local rag ran a story on it last week and they tried to make it sound the greatest thing ever. I have never seen such enthusiasm for poverty. The friggin bread lines are forming and no one wants to acknowledge it.

Don’t even get me started on the abuse of WIC cards ....