American Poverty

I have been saying for a long time, to anyone who will listen (okay, that means "my wife") that here in the United States, we have some pretty rich "poor" people. Where else in the world is obesity a problem associated with poverty? Along comes this article citing Walter Williams citing Robert Rector documenting the reality of what poor means in America:

41% of all “poor” households owned their own homes (average size: three bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms; with garage and a porch or patio)

Three-quarters of a million “poor” owned homes worth over $150,000 (some with Jacuzzis and pools)

The average “poor” American has one-third more living space than the average Japanese, 25% more than the average Frenchman, 40% more than the average Greek and four times more than the average Russian. (Hence, were the American “poor” to purchase a house of the same capacity as these foreign counterparts, they would have a minimum of 25% additional spending ability for other items.

70% of “poor” households own a car - 27% own two or more cars.

97% have a color television - nearly half own two or more televisions.

The “poor” people are more likely to be overweight than higher-income people (more room for State intervention there). The average consumption of proteins, vitamins and minerals is virtually the same for poor as middle-income children.

To be sure, there are certainly pockets of genuine poverty in this country, but these statistics demonstrate that in many cases are poor are really not all that poor.