🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 17 Oct 1998 01:32:58 -0500, "Aaron M. Renn"
<arenn@urbanophile.com> wrote:

>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.
>

I would suppose that the Heritage Foundation would overstate its
position to about the extent that poverty is overstated in this
country.

I myself agree with some but not all of what you quote from the study.
Most people on welfare have color tvs, vcrs, etc.  Most people on
welfare are not living in poverty.