Letter to the Editor: Definition of "poor" subject of debate

After reading Bernie Sanders’ column last week, one has to think that this is what one writes when he wants more taxpayers’ money to waste on social programs. He makes it sound like this is the worst country in the world, that we have nothing but poor people and that they are worse off than the rest of the world. Here are some interesting facts about the poor in the U.S., which you will never hear or read in the main-stream media.

“In a new report, Heritage's Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. government's 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 media–namely, 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.”

Quoted from the The Heritage Foundation’s website.

The poor man who has lost his home or suffers intermittent hunger will find no consolation in the fact that his condition occurs infrequently in American society. His hardships are real and should be an important concern to policymakers. Nonetheless, anti-poverty policy needs to be based on accurate information. Gross exaggeration of the extent and severity of hardships in America will not benefit society, the taxpayers, or the poor.”

The sad part is there are so many people sucking on the nipples of the government that when there is a real need to help someone the nipples have run dry.

Joe Wollman

Odessa