Remember that book titled “The Millionaire Next Door?” It was about ordinary people, perhaps your neighbors, who had worked hard and lived modestly and, as a result, had accumulated millions of dollars despite relatively modest incomes.
I have an on-going argument with my lunatic mother-in-law. Actually, I have many on-going arguments with my lunatic mother-in-law, but the one I’m referring to in this case revolves around the poor. She says America is filled is poor, downtrodden wretches who have nothing. I say America’s poor are the envy of most of the world’s population.
I don’t deny the possibility that both positions are possibly true, but I think my position is reinforced by a new study by the Heritage Foundation:
For decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty,” but the bureau’s definition of poverty differs widely from that held by most Americans. In fact, other government surveys show that most of the persons whom the government defines as “in poverty” are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term. The overwhelming majority of the poor have air conditioning, cable TV, and a host of other modern amenities. They are well housed, have an adequate and reasonably steady supply of food, and have met their other basic needs, including medical care. Some poor Americans do experience significant hardships, including temporary food shortages or inadequate housing, but these individuals are a minority within the overall poverty population. Poverty remains an issue of serious social concern, but accurate information about that problem is essential in crafting wise public policy. Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and causes of real material deprivation, thereby hampering the development of well-targeted, effective programs to reduce the problem.
This may describe the current condition of so-called poverty in the United States, but this site is called EconomicCollapse.net and I fear that this may be the high water mark for America’s lower classes.
At the rate we’re going, America’s poor may soon find out what the rest of the world means when it talks about poverty.
Source: Heritage Foundation
