Americans Dont Know of True Poverty

Last month the Census Bureau released a report which announced there are roughly 37 million poor persons living in America. The number was roughly the same as the prior year, although as a percentage of population it has come down. The left has used this report as an excuse to attack Bush's tax cuts as well as spending on the war. The claim is that higher taxes and lower military spending would allow us to better care for these poor unfortunate souls. The Heritage Foundation recently released a report detailing what exactly it means to be poor in America, and it reveals that our poverty level is not as bad as some would like you to believe.

The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various gov­ernment reports:

• Forty-three percent of all poor households actu­ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
• Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• Only 6 percent of poor households are over­crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
• The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
• Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
• Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
• Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
• Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.