Mike said:
There are 37 million persons classified as poor in America.
Of that 37 million:
43% own their own homes.
That is a rather surprising number to me.
The average poor person in America has more living space than the
average non poor person in the major cities of Europe.
This has more to do with the amount of land available in the U.S. (and how
long the U.S. has been "settled" by Europeans for) than income, I think.
80% of poor households have air conditioning.
Yeah, but due to technology buying an air conditioner is cheap today. You can
find small window units for well under $100 used, and I've even seen plenty of
people give them away on, e.g., freecycle.com. On the other hand, if you're
living in a place like Arizona *running* the air conditioner is pretty hard
for the poor... although perhaps not that much worse than paying for heating
in, e.g., Minnesota during winter...
Almost 3/4 of poor household own a car.
31% of them have 2 or more cars.
This too reflects a bit more about the size of the U.S. and the price of
gasoline (still less than half of what most Europeans pay) than income: We
don't have particularly good inter-city public transport in the U.S. and only
the largest cities have anything approaching "full coverage" by busses and/or
trains. Hence a car is a pretty high priority, even if you're poor... and
hey, if you lose your home, it does serve as a place to live as many poor
people are all too well aware.
97% of poor households have color televisions.
Over 1/2 have 2 or more color TVs.
78% have a VCR or DVD player.
Again, due to technology all these items are pretty dirt cheap today. You can
easily find, e.g., 25" color TVs for, say, $20 at garage sales as
morel-well-heeled people are upgrading to huge plasma or LCD TVs.
62% have cable or satellite TV.
That one has always surprised me a bit, I guess because cable or satellite TV
don't seem like particularly good value for the money if you're short on
money... although it has been pointed out to me that ~$40/mo for "expanded
basic" that you can plop your kids in front of and keep them out of your hair
all day is a lot cheaper than childcare.
89% own microwave ovens.
50% have a stereo.
Also dirt cheap used.
Over 2/3 have an automatic dishwasher.
Probably not one they bought themselves but rather one that came with the home
or apartment. (AFAIK, pretty much all new apartments in the past 20+ years
have dishwashers...)
All in all, I'd have to say that our poor are doing pretty well.
I doubt that we or you folks in the UK have anymore than a
handfull of people who know real poverty.
The biggest problems for the poor in the U.S. seem to be health care
(completely unaffordable if you're working at close to minimum wage) and the
fear that, if your car does die, you won't be able to afford to fix it or get
another one and this will prevent you from working which then gets you kicked
out of your home for failure to pay rent or mortgage. Childcare is another
biggy if you're a single parent. (A single parent with young children who has
nothing better than a high-school diploma has a *very* deep "hole" to get out
of in this country!)
---Joel
