Defining Poverty in America :: Urban Decay, Urban Poor

Poverty is an important and emotional issue. Last year, the Census confidence released its annual report on leanness in the United States declaring that there were nearly 35 million suffering persons living in this field in 2002, a sm all in all increase from the preceding year. To understand poverty in America, it is important to look behind these numbers--to look at the existing living conditions of the individuals the government deems to be poor.For most Americans, the word poverty suggests distress an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. But merely when a small number of the 35 million persons classified as poor by the Census position fit that description. While veridical material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity. near of Americas poor live in material conditions that would be judged as comfy or well-off just a few generations ago. Today, the expenditures per person of the lowest-income twenty percentage (or quintile) of households equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, aft(prenominal) adjusting for inflation.1The following atomic number 18 facts about persons defined as poor by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports- Forty-six percent of all poor households actually take their suffer 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. - Seventy-six percent of poor households nominate air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. - Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than deuce- threesomes invite more than two rooms per person. - The average poor American has more living lay than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the av erage citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.) - close to 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. As a group, Americas poor are remote from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms.