Listening
Gold Member
- Aug 27, 2011
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Currently, there is a thread in the political forum on the failure of LBJ's war on poverty.
I've tried to keep up, but to many people are like me...prone to flame instead of debate.
One reason is the frustration of getting an agreeable set of definitions.
I want to know more about what it means to be in poverty.
In a new report, Heritages Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. governments own facts and figures really say about poverty in the United States. The results might surprise you, especially if your view of poverty is the conventional one, perpetuated by the medianamely, destitute conditions of homelessness and hunger. In reality, though, the living conditions of those defined as poor by the government are much different than that popular image. The following are facts about persons defined as poor by the Census Bureau:
80 percent of poor households have air conditioning
Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks
Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television
Two-thirds have at least one DVD player and 70 percent have a VCR
Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers
More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation
43 percent have Internet access
One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD television
One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo
As for hunger and homelessness, Rector and Sheffield point to 2009 statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing that 96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food, 83 percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and over the course of a year, only 4 percent of poor persons become temporarily homeless, with 42 percent of poor households actually owning their own homes. Want an international comparison? The average poor American has more living space than the average Swede or German. You can read even more of those facts in their report, Understanding Poverty in the United States.
https://www.askheritage.org/what-does-it-really-mean-to-be-poor-in-america/
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I assume that Heritage mixes poor with "in poverty". I've heard some of this before.
So....just how do we define the poor. And have we changed he defintion of poverty such that LBJ's war was on a moving target. Did it really do a good job ?
I'll be looking to flesh this out some more.
I've tried to keep up, but to many people are like me...prone to flame instead of debate.
One reason is the frustration of getting an agreeable set of definitions.
I want to know more about what it means to be in poverty.
In a new report, Heritages Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. governments own facts and figures really say about poverty in the United States. The results might surprise you, especially if your view of poverty is the conventional one, perpetuated by the medianamely, destitute conditions of homelessness and hunger. In reality, though, the living conditions of those defined as poor by the government are much different than that popular image. The following are facts about persons defined as poor by the Census Bureau:
80 percent of poor households have air conditioning
Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks
Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television
Two-thirds have at least one DVD player and 70 percent have a VCR
Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers
More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation
43 percent have Internet access
One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD television
One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo
As for hunger and homelessness, Rector and Sheffield point to 2009 statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing that 96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food, 83 percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and over the course of a year, only 4 percent of poor persons become temporarily homeless, with 42 percent of poor households actually owning their own homes. Want an international comparison? The average poor American has more living space than the average Swede or German. You can read even more of those facts in their report, Understanding Poverty in the United States.
https://www.askheritage.org/what-does-it-really-mean-to-be-poor-in-america/
**************
I assume that Heritage mixes poor with "in poverty". I've heard some of this before.
So....just how do we define the poor. And have we changed he defintion of poverty such that LBJ's war was on a moving target. Did it really do a good job ?
I'll be looking to flesh this out some more.