🚀 go-pugleaf

Axel Boldt wrote:
> > >If you are poor in the US, you live in a little self-built card board
> > >home in the streets of Los Angeles. The police will come by regularly
> > >and destroy the card board home. You are not allowed to beg for money
> > >(recent city ordinance). As a single unemployed male you don't receive
> > >any welfare payments. You don't starve because there are private soup
> > >kitchens.
> >
> > Hmm, I wonder where you get this information.
> 
> New York Times, Public radio, some of it I've seen myself.

Have you seen the recent Heritage Foundation study on poverty in the US? 
It's entitled the Myth of Widespread Poverty in America.  While it does not
deny the existence of legitimate poverty, it does show that the poverty
statistics far overstate the problem.  For example, of people classfied as
"poor" by the Census Bureau:

-- 41% own their own home.  Almost 200,000 poor people own home worth over
$300,000.

-- 97% of the poor have a color TV.  Amost 50% own two or more color TV's. 
Three quarters have a VCR, about 20% have two VCR's.  64% have microwave
ovens, and over 25% have dishwashers.

-- Two third of poor households have air conditioning.  30 years ago only
36% of the entire US had air conditioning.

-- Far from being undernourished, many of the poor are overnourished. This
is true even if you look at the makeup of the diet. Today's poor end up one
inch taller and ten pounds heavery than the average US soldier in WWII. 
(School lunches started as a military program, BTW).

There's more.  You can check out the study at:

http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1221es.html

If you plan to dismiss or criticize the study as the output of a right wing
think tank (which it is.  Additionally, it has several obvious areas for
citicism) you should first explain why you gave unquestioning acceptance to
the New York Times article and public radio broadcasts which agreed with
your position.

-- 
Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/