If being ?poor? means (as Edwards claims it does) a lack of nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, then very few of America?s 37 million official ?poor? people can be regarded as actually poor. Some material hardship does exist in the United States, but, in reality, it is quite restricted in scope and severity.
46 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only six percent of poor households are overcrowded; two thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
97 percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
78 percent have a VCR or DVD player.
62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
89 percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
So, why is this fraud being allowed to continue? Easy, because government officials and certain elite want more and more control to be put in the hands of government and taken away from the voters. Why? Because to they the voters don't understand what the voters need. We are too dumb to understand that they know what we truly need.
Being poor in America isn't exactly what is professed to be.
In both good and bad economic environments, the typical American poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work during a year ? the equivalent of 16 hours of work per week. If work in each family were raised to 2,000 hours per year ? the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week throughout the year ? nearly 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of official poverty.
As noted above, father absence is another major cause of child poverty. Nearly two thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.5 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three quarters of the nation?s impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty.
Yet, although work and marriage are reliable ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, the nation?s remaining poverty could be reduced.
The above points are important. Why? Because the government through its programs (which we the voters are too dumb to understand, just sign and drive) are creating the very situation they claim to be fixing!
46 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only six percent of poor households are overcrowded; two thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
97 percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
78 percent have a VCR or DVD player.
62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
89 percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
So, why is this fraud being allowed to continue? Easy, because government officials and certain elite want more and more control to be put in the hands of government and taken away from the voters. Why? Because to they the voters don't understand what the voters need. We are too dumb to understand that they know what we truly need.
Being poor in America isn't exactly what is professed to be.
In both good and bad economic environments, the typical American poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work during a year ? the equivalent of 16 hours of work per week. If work in each family were raised to 2,000 hours per year ? the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week throughout the year ? nearly 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of official poverty.
As noted above, father absence is another major cause of child poverty. Nearly two thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.5 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three quarters of the nation?s impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty.
Yet, although work and marriage are reliable ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, the nation?s remaining poverty could be reduced.
The above points are important. Why? Because the government through its programs (which we the voters are too dumb to understand, just sign and drive) are creating the very situation they claim to be fixing!