The News & Observer today had a story citing the latest U.S. Census poverty report that found 14 percent of North Carolinians lived in poverty in 2008. As with most news reports of the “poverty” rate in the United States, the actual definition of poverty is missing. Most people have visions of people living in hovels with dirt floors, snot-nosed children hanging around in states of undress, mom in a dirty gingham dress and a toothless dad in worn-out brogans.
While that little tableau may be accurate for Depression-era poverty, it doesn’t resemble the situation of today’s “poor.” Robert Rector at NRO explains:
According to the government?s own surveys, the typical
?poor? American has cable or satellite TV, two color TVs, and a DVD
player or VCR. He has air conditioning, a car, a microwave, a
refrig?erator, a stove, and a clothes washer and dryer.
He is able to obtain medical care when needed. His home is in good
repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not
hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his
family?s essential needs. While this individual?s life is not affluent,
it is far from the images of dire poverty conveyed by liberal activists
and politicians.
While reporters and liberal activists might not grasp the difference, I knew my first-grade son understood the reality when he asked: “Daddy, why do all the poor kids have HBO?”
