America's Poor

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation shares some statistics on Americans "Living in Poverty", which government numbers at some 37 million people, at NRO. Almost half of these people own their own homes, and on average a poor American has far more living space than the average European citizen.

"Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR, or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. 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 opulent, it is far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians."

This is not to say that there are not issues, but that the story being framed by the media is being oversold to a large degree. Nearly 3/4 of the poor own an automobile, and almost 1/3 own two. The average caloric consumption of a poor American child is almost identical to that of a middle class child. One of the biggest issues regarding children in poverty is that they are living in a single parent (and hence income) family. Nearly 3/4 of the children living in poverty wouldn't be if their parent was married.

Another issue is that of recent immigrants - a quarter of the poor are either recent or first generation, and ten percent are illegal or the child of an illegal, and a quarter of legal immigrants and over half the illegals do not possess a high school education. Bottom line, we need to secure the border and be much more selective on who we allow to reside in our nation.