Heritage Foundation’s – “Report On Poverty”

The elites over at The Heritage Foundation have taken the time to let us all know that being poor isn’t so bad after all. In their report entitled “How Poor are America’s Poor? Examining the “Plague” of Poverty in America they explain that the current standards for declaring poverty are far too high.

Before I get into this “report” I want to site the following example of how you can clearly see a group, or person’s, goals by their wording:

If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, almost three-quarters would immediately be lifted out of poverty.

This is a well hidden misogynistic jab at poor mothers that conceive out of wedlock. I’m sure the elites at The Heritage Foundation have had to deal with this issue many times in their lives. Well mothers, it’s your fault that you’re poor. If you had only accepted that pleasant man’s woos and became his wife you’d be so much better, but no, you decided to be alone and poor just to spite him. This is plain ridiculousness and it’s the same mindset that created the rest of this report.

And it’s not what this report says only, but it’s what is not said. There is nothing in this report about health care, except a quick admission at the end stating the poor have difficulty obtaining it, nor is there anything on how much debt these people, who clearly have a wealth of material goods, are in due to credit cards and loans. Nor is there anything in this report about the working conditions of the poor.

This report is simply a “feel good” read for the elite. It’s also a way for them to justify their position in society since the poor apparently are full of people living lavish lifestyles. If the poor aren’t really that poor then the middle-class must be titans of wealth. It’s so easy for the rich to tell us how poor the poor really are. And what of the Heritage Foundation’s Chairman’s Circle members who pay $1M dollars for this title?

They site the following items as examples toward why America’s poor really aren’t that poor after all:

43% own their own home. (Do they really own the home or does the bank own it? How many of these people are currently being affected by the unscrupulous loan practices of many lenders that put people into homes they could barely afford? But I guess dealing with this problem would mean more government which is not one of the Heritage Foundation’s goals.)

80% have air conditioning. (In case Robert isn’t aware you can get air conditioners for free from Craigslist or Freecycle. They’re also very cheap at around $100 or less. However, are they actually being used? That’s the question to ask.)

Only 6% are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two room per person. (How many rooms per person do the members of the Heritage Foundation’s board of trustee’s have?)

The average poor American has more living space than individuals living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities in Europe. (They also, more than likely, have more living space than people living in Manhattan. Yes, it’s cheaper to live in certain areas, but what about the jobs?)

Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a care: 31 percent own two or more cars. (What condition is the car? How hold is it and does it actually work. Though the members of the Heritage Foundation may not worry about auto repair it does cost a lot of money to maintain an older vehicle. You can actually buy a car for $500 or be duped into a lease by a car dealer whether you can actually afford it or not. How many cars are repossessed each year?)

Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions. (This is being ridiculous. Now owning a color television means you’re living conditions are superior? I guess at least you can watch television and try to forget that you’re poor.)

Seventy-eight percent have a VCR of DVD player: 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception. (Do they have “reception” or do they actually have a subscription to a cable or satellite provider? Again, this means you’re living the “good” life?)

Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half own a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher. (It’s strange to me that more people own televisions than own stereos, but I guess I have to believe the study. How much of these items actually work? Do they use the dishwasher? Can they afford the electric bill?)The report ends with the gem on poverty along with an aside that tells the reader that Robert “understands” poverty:

But the living conditions of the average poor person should not be taken to mean that all poor Americans live without hardship. There is a wide range of living conditions among the poor. Roughly a third of poor households do face material hardships such as overcrowding, intermittent food shortage, or difficulty obtaining medical care. However, even these households would be judged to have high living standards in comparison to most other people in the world. (Yeah Robert, this is America, right?)

Moreover, the United States can readily reduce its remaining poverty, especially among children. The main causes of child poverty in the United States are low levels of parental work, high numbers of single-parent families, and low skill levels of incoming immigrants. By increasing work and marriage, reducing illegal immigration, and by improving the skill level of future legal immigrants, our nation can, over time, virtually eliminate remaining child poverty.

Yes Robert, you’re right. I have an idea. Let’s match the poor people up with your Heritage Foundation Chairman’s Circle members. I’m sure that $1M will go a long way to help them afford health care and deal with the large amount of debt they’ve been duped into. These “Chairman’s Circle” members contributed almost 18M of the Foundation’s 40M dollars in total contributions.

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