[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 20:36:14 -0700
I suppose it only fair that I save other people the trouble of actually
reading the report. Here is what the Heritage Report said (Page 1 of the
Executive Summary): "The typical 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 citizen in
foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
As to "who actually measured the ground here," that is, the information
cited above, the Heritage Report on page 1 says "the following are facts
about persons defined as 'poor' by the Census Bureau, taken from various
government reports"
The report isn't a "debunking of the very idea that there's any poverty in
the US." The report states what the actual poverty figures are. It
suggests that most people don't know them. I suspect most people didn't
know what those figures were. Notice that one person on Lit-Ideas thought
that our poor were as poor as the 3rd world poor who earn less than $365 per
year. The actual poverty line for a single individual in America is $8,980.
He is poor by American standards, but not as poor as the poor from a 3rd
world country. As a matter of fact, the poor of America have more income
the average income of many if not most of the third world countries:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html Note
that the American Poverty line is above the average income of nation No. 91.
See the statistical detail about nutrition in the Heritage Report,
Understanding Poverty in America by Robert Rector & Kirk Johnson.:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security
/getfile.cfm
<http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/securit
y/getfile.cfm&PageID=53977> &PageID=53977 The Poverty line is determined by
taking the cost of eating nutritiously and multiplying it times three; so
yearly food costs per person would be $2993.
Page 4 of the Heritage Report indicates that 54% of Poor households live in
single family homes. 9.6% live in Mobile Homes, and 36.4% live in
Apartments.
However, all this and more is in the report. It gives sources, census
references, etc. Once again, it is at
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security
/getfile.cfm
<http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/securit
y/getfile.cfm&PageID=53977> &PageID=53977
Or you can read it in html at
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm less the Executive
Summary.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Robert Paul
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 7:56 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-id] The Poverty of Heritage
Lawrence Helm wrote:
> But the evidence doesn't agree with your assertions. Statistics don't
> support your prejudices. Anecdotal evidence doesn't trump statistical
> fact.
I must have missed the part about who actually measured the ground here.
The Heritage Foundation's naive assumptions are that one can live as
well on $700 a month in the US as one could in Paris or London for
$10,000 or more a month. I say their 'assumptions,' for nowhere that I
can see do they bother to investigate how much it really costs to live
well in a major West European city. In this silly debunking of the very
idea that there's any poverty in the US, the fact that people own 'color
TVs' and microwaves is evidence of the good life. They fail to note what
Julie and others have already pointed out-that these days, every TV is a
color TV, and that a set can be bought through the classifieds, as
someone has already said, for about $50. They also neglect to ask, as
Judy did, whether the microwave is the only cooking appliance in the home.
The raw claim that the poor claim that have access to health care says
little. If they have reliable access to it without going first to an
emergency room, I'd be surprised.
My prejudices may be one thing, but simple arithmetic, an example of
which I set out here for your examination, is another.
Income (pre-tax): 700
Shelter (rent): 250
Groceries and food. 220
'Cable TV' 50-80*
Gas (3 refills per month mid-sized middle-aged US car): 3x40 =120**
At this point there is $60 left to cover:
Utilities: heat/oil/electricity/gas/water: 150
Incidentals (newspapers/coffee/books/candy bars/): forget it
Savings: forget it
Car repair: forget it
Wear and tear on rugs, furniture, etc.: forget it
Appliance replacement/repair: forget it.
Light bulbs: (see 'Groceries')
Movies/DVD rental/new CDs for 'stereo music system': see 'Entertainment'
Entertainment: forget it.
Vacations: ?
Health care: Oops!
-------------
*Our costs for cable and a high speed Internet connection through
Comcast is over 100 per month. We don't get HBO or other fancy channels.
**Other transportation costs might be considered here. An all-zone
monthly Tri-Met (Portland Metro Area) bus pass is 72. For 'honored
citizens' it's only 21. (But of course no honored citizen in the US
lives below the poverty level.)
The rent (250) figure I'm using will get you nothing in Manhattan, San
Francisco, Seattle, or other major 'desirable' cities. It won't get you
anything _in_ Portland, either although you might find something this
low an outlying area from which you'd be likely to have a long commute
(see 'Gas' and 'Car repair').
Supposedly, many people who are considered income poor own their own
mansions. If so, 250 is a very low figure for property taxes,
maintenance, local assessments, and the like. I assume, along with the
Heritage Foundation, that nobody polled mentioned mortgage payments.
I've seen better special effects in B movies.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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