WASHINGTON (Reuters [1]) – Some 1.3 million Americans slid into poverty in 2003 as the ranks of the poor rose 4 percent to 35.9 million, with children and blacks worse off than most, the U.S. government said on Thursday in a report sure to fuel Democratic criticism of President Bush.
So why all the talk about poverty?
Check the calander, with reference to the first Tuesday in November, and the fact that there isn’t a Democrat in the White House. Funny how poverty isn’t a word you’ll her at any other time than this.
Well, let’s be generous, and give the story the benefit of the doubt, for just a moment. Let’s see what defines ‘poverty’ in America, shall we?
The fact is that ‘poverty’ is not an absolute level, but an arbitrary one set by Democrats wishing to remain in power.
Walter Williams points out [2]:
“Seventy percent of “poor” households own a car; 27 percent own two or more cars. Ninety-seven percent have a color television; nearly half own two or more televisions. Two-thirds of “poor” households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. America’s “poor” people aren’t hungry, either. In fact, “poor” people are more likely to be overweight than higher-income people. The average consumption of proteins, vitamins and minerals is virtually the same for poor as middle-income children, and in most cases above government recommended minimums. ”
Williams then concludes:
“Real material poverty, to any significant degree, simply does not exist in the United States. The bulk of our “poor” live under conditions that would have been judged comfortable or even well-off a few generations ago. The nonsense maxim that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” just doesn’t stand up to the evidence. The fact is everyone has become richer.”
You’ll note in the story linked that Mr. Kerry is concerned that more money be spent on poverty. However, as Thomas Sowell has noted:
“The assumption that spending more of the taxpayers’ money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family—which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions—began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to “help.”
But this is exactly what Kerry is proposing we do. It’s the same thing as has been proposed by every Democrat Since LBJ…. whose failed policies dumped millions upon millions of dollars into ‘poverty’ and have not eradicatied it. The reason, as I say is the definition of poverty keeps getting moved up so as to allow for poverty pimps to use your money and mine to buy votes.
In short, Mr. Kerry, like so many other Democrats with an utter void of qualifications, and a deep and abiding void of real answers to the real problems we face, has become a poverty pimp.
Update: Boortz has some similar thoughts [3], and some added details.