[lit-ideas] Re: The American Poor

  • From: Chris Bruce <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 21:36:46 +0200


On 24. Mai 2006, at 21:08, Lawrence Helm wrote:

Of households below the poverty level, 46% own their own homes, and 76% have air conditioning.  

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; 30 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, seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher?

A nagging question: do 'own' and 'have' here mean 'fully paid for' - or do these things really (fully or partly) belong to the banks, credit card companies, loan agencies and other corporations that extended the credit for their purchase?


 Chris Bruce
Kiel, Germany

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