Being 'Poor' Ain't What It Used to Be
A Closer Look at the Politics of Poverty
By Bluey Posted in Policy — Comments (35) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Listening to John Edwards these days, you'd think America's poor, a number the Census Bureau puts at 37 million, are in dire straits. While I certainly have sympathy for anyone who faces a daily struggle to make ends meet, the truth is that many of the 37 million who fall into the government's classification of poverty don't really have it all that bad, according to a new paper by my Heritage Foundation colleague Robert Rector.
Here's just a snippet of Rector's findings (which he highlighted in a National Review op-ed yesterday):
• 43% 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% of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36% of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• Only 6% of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
• The average 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.)
More statistics on the jump ...
• Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31% own two or more cars.
• 97% of poor households have a color television; more than half own two or more color televisions.
• 78% have a VCR or DVD player; 62% have cable or satellite TV reception.
• 89% own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Don't get me wrong, I know there are many poor Americans who don't fall into any of these categories. But the fact is, as Rector notes in his paper, a little more work and a healthy marriage (and no out-of-wedlock births) would go a long way to reducing poverty -- and have better results than the government's throwing more money at the problem.
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All of this is true--and I consider myself blessed to live in a time and place where the number one nutritional problem among the "poor" is obesity. And I'm very grateful for air conditioning here in Texas.
And I guess it's nice that msot can afford all these consumer gadgets.
On the other hand, in two major , things are getting worse, or staying stagnant, for lower and even middle income Americans, while the richer Americans are getting fabulously wealthy. Health care and good education are both getting more expensive.
These are goods that are VERY wealthy society should be able to provide to all. And while I disagree strongly that the Democratic (i.e., socialist) approach to these problems, I would love to hear more Republican candidates actually acknowledge these problems.
"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." -Edmund Burke
"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." -Edmund Burke
The solution to rising medical care and school costs is to cut off the subsidies. End Pell grants, end government subsidied school loans, end medicare and medicaid, end all the subsidies. If you subsidize something, you get more of it. By subsidizing high prices, we make them higher.
The Democrats in their total economic ignorance, think the solution is to add even more of the subsidies is the way to fix it.
Some Republicans ignore the elephants in the budget, and hope for political expediency by blaming 'trial lawyers.'
But nope. Until we reduce regulations and get people comparison shopping on PRICE for medical care and schools, prices will continue to stay too high.
I agreed in principle to most of your comment, but I disagree with your bit about trial lawyers. Trial lawyers are part of the problem. Ambulance chaser type lawsuits do exist, and do add to the cost of health care.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
The problem isn't that there aren't educational opportunities for the poor (or minorities). It's that the "other America" has a culture that doesn't value education.
I attended some of the best and worst of the public school systems. My inner-city high school offered more than seven languages, advanced placement physics, honors english, and a slew of other opportunities that my white-bread, suburban high school didn't offer. However, I never feared for my life in the halls of my suburban high school.
What makes the schools of the poor so terrible is the poor students, and what makes them so terrible is that they're coming from families that aren't headed by responsible adults.
_________________________________
"You can't save the Earth unless you're willing to make other people sacrifice" - Scott Adams (speaking through Dogbert)
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
You're accepting their characterization of middle America without question. It's bogus.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
behind is just wrong. It's Dem fiction.
Real hourly compensation has been on an upward trend.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
My Public Finance professor tried to propagate this tripe about how the poor are getting worse and worse off by having us research the data on the share of GDP going to each quintile of income earners (basically, since 1975, the bottom three have all gone down, the fourth quintile has held steady, and the top 5% have a noticeable uptick). I responded by looking at the real income figures.
Adjusted for CPI, the average household in the bottom quintile of income is about 10% better than they were in 1975 (roughly $24,500 per year rather than $22,200 a year in 2005 dollars). That being said, the top 5% has increased about 60% (from $109K to $170K a year). I phrased it as saying "Imagine you won $2,500 in the lottery, and your neighbor won $60,000. Did you lose just because your neighbor got more? Or did you still win?"
"I don't understand why the same newspaper commentators who bemoan the terrible education given to poor people are always so eager to have those poor people get out and vote." - P.J. O'Rourke
Yep, some improvement in wages, plus many consumer goods are falling in absolute, not just real, terms. (Not sure if I'm using the right adjectives).
BUT--I see with my own eyes that the costs of health care continue to skyrocket, and the cost of education continues to increase (though less than healthcare), at a pace faster than the real increase of wages.
So yes, easier to but computers. But also, harder to get better if you're sick, or live with some dignity with chronic illness, and harder to educate yourself or your children. At the same time, more and more multi-millionaires.
By the way, I have never voted for a Democratic candidate for President, Governor, Senator, or Representative, and don't plan on doing so next go-around. But man, I wish more in my party would make a priority of showing how we can better exploit the genius of our free market system to provide better health and education to my fellow citizens. Otherwise, the socialists will capitalize (pun intended).
"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." -Edmund Burke
"Yep, some improvement in wages, plus many consumer goods are falling in absolute, not just real, terms. (Not sure if I'm using the right adjectives)."
Nominal is the adjective for prices that have not been adjusted for inflation/deflation.
"So yes, easier to but computers. But also, harder to get better if you're sick, or live with some dignity with chronic illness, and harder to educate yourself or your children. At the same time, more and more multi-millionaires."
The increases in the real cost of education and non-elective medical services is largely a result of government involvement in these areas.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Here are some Conservative solutions to rising health care costs.
1. Increase the availability of OTC products. If the product is not a narcotic, steroid, or antibiotic the product should be OTC legal. This will significantly lower the costs of many medications.
2. Tort Reform: damage caps and a loser pays system will lower health care costs be a few percentage points.
3. Remove legal restrictions that impede the creation of "Docboxes," such as Wall-Mart's Independent in Store Clinics and Walgreen's Convenient Care Clinics. These clinics provide cheap diagnosis and treatment of common medical problems.
4. Allow individuals to purchase what ever type of medical insurance that they want. Currently many states require consumers of health insurance to purchase many additional products under their health insurance plans (mental
health coverage, birth control coverage, etc.) these requirements significantly increase the costs of those plans.
5. Expand the availability of HSAs to all citizens.
6. Expan the use of "Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners...as primary care providers."
7. Removing the AMA from the licensing process. The AMA works to restrict the supply of doctors in order to drive up the prices. Remove it from the licensing process, and you should see an increase in the supply of doctors, which will decrease the price of medical services.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
I hope that our candidates make coming up with reforms like these and others PROMINENT in their campaigns and action in office.
"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." -Edmund Burke
I have little sympathy for people who put themselves in the poor house. Fortunately, in America, most people can get themselves out of it. Many years ago, I was homeless. I was a drunk and addicted to drugs. I thought I was hopeless. The grace of God, through some wonderful people who were willing to give me a hand-up (as opposed to a hand-out), helped me get on the straight-and-narrow and I've come a long way from where I was.
On the contrast, a very close friend of mine really IS poor. She's unable to hold a regular job (even part time) due to chronic illness. She lives on SSI disability. Her monthly stipend is all of $623. The rent on her 500sf apt. is $430. Her electric bill runs about $140/mo. in the summer. She gets about $130/mo. in food stamps. She's also on Medicaid. Finding specialists when she needs one is a real chore because most doctors won't accept Medicaid. The reg. doc. she has now isn't very good but does keep her maintained. She is limited to 3 RX's per mo. but has more that she pays out of her own pocket for. She's barely scraping by.
Did I mention she has a teenage son? She gets no child support but a local agency is trying to help her find the deadbeat dad. I'm not holding my breath on that one. He gets Medicaid too but no food stamps. He doesn't qualify because mom's monthly income ($623) is THREE DOLLARS TOO MUCH. Thank God for a local food bank that helps them out. Local charities also helped her boy get a new pair of shoes. They're on a waiting list for section 8 housing.
They do have a TV but no cable. No car. No assets. The apt. provides a microwave. They used to have a DVD player (I bought her for her birthday last year) but their apt. was burglarized and it was stolen along with the boy's X-Box (that I bought him for Christmas).
Some people game the system, yes, but others (like the folks in this post) are definatly in need. Some people want to eliminate all forms of welfare like Medicaid and SSI but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
www.scottbomb.com
Click here to donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
You'll note that "the system" is (barely) keeping her going, but it's the charity of individuals (i.e., you, the local food bank, and local charities) that are the real heroes. If those individuals had more money to work with, and the government programs less, your friend and her son would probably be a lot better off.
Our current system feeds the poor in the same sense that giving grain to horses feeds the flies. If we ended social "entitlements", and instead instituted a tax credit for charitable giving up to 80% of your tax bill, we could do a lot more good for a lot more people.
____________________________________
"You can't save the Earth unless you're willing to make other people sacrifice" - Scott Adams (speaking through Dogbert)
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Because suggesting a teenager can maybe find some gainful employment to support his mother is comparable to dehumanizing him, or selling him in parts, or something.
How old are you, CrabCakes? Your perspective suggests you may have parents yourself who are bugging you to get a job.
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NARF
As satire, it's meant to be exaggerated. Swift was referring to the England's callous reaction to Irish poverty. I was applying Swift to Herodotus' callous reaction to scottbomb's friend's poverty. Of course, having to explain it kind of kills the wit of the reference.
By the way, don't worry about me. I'm a homeowner in my twenties who hasn't taken a dime from his parents in about a decade.
Explaining it did not kill the "...wit of the reference."
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Although he is occasionally able to find an odd job to make some spending money.
www.scottbomb.com
Click here to donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
If he is 14 or older he is legal to work part-time in every state that I have lived.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
What the poor can afford:
cars, air conditioning, cable TV, DVDs, CDs, appliances, and video games.
What the poor cannot afford:
Photo IDs
From: "Senator Obama, Rep. Lewis oppose photo ID for voting"
Jet, Oct 24, 2005
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_17_108/ai_n15791965
"It may seem to make sense on the surface," Obama told reporters. "But the problem is you have a large proportion of people who don't have driver's licenses. So, they would have to pay to get state-issued ID cards, which might cost money and cause hardship for minorities."
"What makes the schools of the poor so terrible is the poor students, and what makes them so terrible is that they're coming from families that aren't headed by responsible adults."
You put it perfectly.
I think these census statistics should have a category for the poor and a category for those in poverty. You can be poor in America and have trouble making ends meet without actually having trouble affording food or shelter. Based on an article written by a fellow at the Heritage institute I read, it seems that perhaps 3% of Americans are in poverty and 15% are poor. Those who are in poverty have trouble paying the cheapest rent they can find. Those who are poor have trouble paying the cable bill and drive old, used cars.
--
I'm looking for an entry level job in D.C. or Maryland.
I earned a Government and Politics major at the University of Maryland, College Park and have experience interning on Capitol Hill.
I love teaching in my particular poor rural school system. I love teaching here because everyday we are living proof that the education establishment is wrong. The education establishment says that you cannot get anywhere near 100% of students to pass an standardized idiot test, yet my students do it almost every semester. The education establishment says parental income determines a students ability to learn, yet many of my poorest students have gone on to repeatedly make the Dean's List at schools such as UVA and William and Mary. The education establishment says that you need to spend $10,000 to $20,000 per student each year, in order to make AYP. My school system spends about $6,000 per student each year, and we have made AYP for multiple years in a row. How many of the school systems that are regularly touted by the education establishment can say any of the above.
P.S. I also like teacher here because a plurality of the cars in the faculty parking lot have NRA stickers on them.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Near the end of the first year that all three of my kids were in the local Catholic school, my wife came home from the Home & School meeting (Catholic equivalent of the PTA, except the HSA is also the funding body for the school), and informed me that the tuition was going to go up the next year.
Since we were already hurting from the tuition payments, I was a little miffed about this until I found out the reason; the HSA had set a goal of getting the teachers' salaries within 20% of the public school salaries.
In other words, our teachers, nearly all of whom were excellent and could have easily snagged public school jobs, had instead taken an effective 20% pay cut in order to be allowed to teach the way they thought was right, to children of families who felt that education means more than satisfying the least common denominator.
At this point, I've been paying Catholic school tuition for 14 years and beleive me, it gets a lot pricier in high school. It's the best money I've ever spent.
_______________________________
"You can't save the Earth unless you're willing to make other people sacrifice" - Scott Adams (speaking through Dogbert)
Regarding your high NRA membership among your teachers: I personally like the idea that people responsbible for the well-being of other peoples' children for 6 hours a day may be packing heat.
I be Dyllan and Kliebold (spelling?) whouldn't have gotten far in your school.
______________________
"You can't save the Earth unless you're willing to make other people sacrifice" - Scott Adams (speaking through Dogbert)
“Regarding your high NRA membership among your teachers: I personally like the idea that people responsible for the well-being of other peoples' children for 6 hours a day may be packing heat.”
We are prohibited from taking firearms into the school buildings (state law I think). “Bumper” stickers are a proxy for identifying the views of a school’s faculty.
“I be Dyllan and Kliebold (spelling?) whouldn't have gotten far in your school. “
I am afraid that you lost me on this reference.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
From the Census Bureau report released today:
There were 36.5 million people in poverty in 2006, not statistically different from 2005.
Courtesy, Cato@Liberty:
The Census Bureau today released the latest figures on poverty in the U.S, showing that 12.3 percent of Americans (roughly 36.5 million people) live below the poverty line. Nothing could better illustrate the continued failure of the American welfare state. Despite spending more than $477 billion on some 50 different programs to fight poverty last year, the actual reduction in poverty was trivial. Indeed, since Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1965, the U.S. government has spent more than $11 trillion fighting poverty without success.
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
$477 billion bought us what? "not statistically different".
Truth be told, the easiest way to reduce poverty would be to shut down immigration. 37 million poor people looks like a big number, but it is appropriate to view native and immigrant poor differently.
Immigrant poor come here by choice and work their way up. We know there are ~10MM illegal immigrants, I would assume mostly poor. Add on to that an unknown (by me), but presumably large, number of poor legal immigrants. I don't feel sorry for legal immigrants living in poverty, I admire them for trying to take advantage of an opportunity and work their way up. My ancestors were poor when they came here. We will always have poor (legal) immigrants in America, and as long as America continues to offer tremendous opportunities, there's no problem.
What you are left with if you back out the poor immigrants are the chronic poor in America, a number that's probably in the 20 Million range, as opposed to the 37 Million total poor. It would be interesting to see the breakout on this chronic or native poor category- who are they, where to they live, what is their quality of life, what are the factors keeping them mired in poverty?