Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent, Census says
The AP article is here:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDZH1F0DE.html
At least the Census Bureau clearly states how it defines poverty. According to the article:
The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four with two children was considered living in poverty if income was $19,157 or less. For a family of two with no children, it was $12,649. For a person 65 and over living alone, it was 9,060.
Understood. When I was younger, I understood "poverty" to mean that someone living in that state barely had enough food, clothing, and shelter to get by. Now, many people who are classified as living in poverty in America not only have those things, but also have cars, two color TVs, VHS/DVD players, cell phones, etc. There will always be people who are classified as living in poverty. But the U.S. has the wealthiest poor people in the world. People in third world countries who have to constantly worry about where their next meal will come from are people who are truly poor.
One ultra-liberal co-worker of mine likes to say that by the end of the Bush administration, there will be no middle class, only rich people and poor people. Of course, this makes no sense, but at least one co-worker seemed to agree with him. Both of them consider themselves to be poor. But according to the definitions quoted above, neither of these people fall into the poverty category. They simply like to portray themselves as poor, so they can whine about not having everything they want. Welcome to the real world; most people don't have everything they want! Sometimes I think Philadelphia liberals think that other people live the way TV characters live. They need to see pictures of people living and starving in third world countries to see what real poverty looks like. They don't know how good we have it.
The AP article is here:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDZH1F0DE.html
At least the Census Bureau clearly states how it defines poverty. According to the article:
The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four with two children was considered living in poverty if income was $19,157 or less. For a family of two with no children, it was $12,649. For a person 65 and over living alone, it was 9,060.
Understood. When I was younger, I understood "poverty" to mean that someone living in that state barely had enough food, clothing, and shelter to get by. Now, many people who are classified as living in poverty in America not only have those things, but also have cars, two color TVs, VHS/DVD players, cell phones, etc. There will always be people who are classified as living in poverty. But the U.S. has the wealthiest poor people in the world. People in third world countries who have to constantly worry about where their next meal will come from are people who are truly poor.
One ultra-liberal co-worker of mine likes to say that by the end of the Bush administration, there will be no middle class, only rich people and poor people. Of course, this makes no sense, but at least one co-worker seemed to agree with him. Both of them consider themselves to be poor. But according to the definitions quoted above, neither of these people fall into the poverty category. They simply like to portray themselves as poor, so they can whine about not having everything they want. Welcome to the real world; most people don't have everything they want! Sometimes I think Philadelphia liberals think that other people live the way TV characters live. They need to see pictures of people living and starving in third world countries to see what real poverty looks like. They don't know how good we have it.
posted by Liberty Bell Blues | 1:03 PM
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