|
Poverty has meant living in destitution, something akin to what we see in India, Romania and Mexico. For our country, only a tiny fraction of the population shares anywhere near such a fate. In 2005, 36 percent of all "poor" households owned their own homes. The average size of that home was three bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms, a garage and a porch or patio. Three-quarters of a million "poor" owned homes worth over $150,000; some of those homes sported Jacuzzis and pools. The average "poor" American has one-third more living space than the average Japanese, 25 percent more than the average Frenchman, 40 percent more than the average Greek and four times more than the average Russian.
Seventy percent of "poor" households own a car; 27 percent own two or more cars. Ninety-seven percent have a color television; nearly half own two or more televisions. Two-thirds of "poor" households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. America's "poor" people aren't hungry, either. In fact, "poor" people are more likely to be overweight than higher-income people. They suffer from what I think most want to fix but suffer from limited scope and are trapped by their habits - Ruts are so common that most people think that’s the way it is - and so it becomes a way of life for most - just surviving one day to the next.
Real material poverty, to any significant degree, simply does not exist in the United States. The bulk of our "poor" live under conditions that would have been judged comfortable or even well-off a few generations ago. The nonsense maxim that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" just doesn't stand up to the evidence. The fact is everyone has become richer.
Poverty of the spirit and dependency are today's problems. Many people's lifestyle choices doom their chances for upward mobility. They freely make devastating choices like dropping out of school, having illegitimate children, abusing drugs and alcohol, refusing to work, and engaging in criminal activity.
Focusing most of our attention on material poverty, to the neglect of spiritual poverty and dependency, is not the best way to help our more unfortunate brethren. But misleading Americans about material poverty provides federal budgets and programs that enhance the status and incomes of the poverty elite in charge of managing the poor.
Help people by “giving a hand up instead of a hand out”
|
