John Edwards has wrapped his whole campaign around this poverty issue. Hillary and the other socialist Democrats want to take my money, and your money, and give it to other people. It’s called wealth redistribution, which by the way, is completely bogus. No one “distributed” the money to begin with, so how can it be redistributed?
Anyway, Walter Williams shines a spotlight on the fact that the poor are not getting poorer. In fact, they have it better than they know:
In 1971, only about 32 percent of all Americans enjoyed air conditioning in their homes. By 2001, 76 percent of poor people had air conditioning.
Three out of four poor people, not three out of four Americans, but three out of four poor people have air conditioning. Is that good? Consider this:
Scientists at INSERM, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, deduced the toll by determining that France had experienced 14,802 more deaths than expected for the month of August.
…
The bulk of the victims — many of them elderly — died during the height of the heat wave, which brought suffocating temperatures of up to 104 degrees in a country where air conditioning is rare.
15,000 people died IN ONE MONTH! ONE FREAKING MONTH!
And this is France. It isn’t Haiti or some other third world country. It’s in France! So, yeah, I think it’s good that 76% of poor Americans have air conditioning. With that perspective, don’t you?
Getting back to Dr. Williams’ article:
In 1971, only 43 percent of Americans owned a color television; in 2001, 97 percent of poor people owned at least one. In 1971, 1 percent of American homes had a microwave oven; in 2001, 73 percent of poor people had one. Forty-six percent of poor households own their homes. Only about 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. The average poor American has more living space than the average non-poor individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other European cities.
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars. Seventy-eight percent of the poor have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception; and one-third have an automatic dishwasher.
How many poor people do you see with a cell phone? How many trailers do you see with satellite dishes? Or flat screen televisions?
I know what you are thinking: this doesn’t mean the poor are not getting poorer. It means our poor just have it better than other country’s poor. Well, what about that:
A University of Michigan study shows that only 5 percent of those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution in 1975 remained there in 1991. What happened to them? They moved up to the top three-fifths of the income distribution — middle class or higher. Moreover, three out of 10 of the lowest income earners in 1975 moved all the way into the top fifth of income earners by 1991. Those who were poor in 1975 had an inflation-adjusted average income gain of $27,745 by 1991. Those workers who were in the top fifth of income earners in 1975 were better off in 1991 by an average of only $4,354. The bottom line is, the richer are getting richer and the poor are getting richer.
Things in America are good. You have the opportunity to achieve anything you want here. People are only limited by their own motivation and ideas. But the socialists want to limit the success of some to raise the level of others. It never works. Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth. Socialism is the equal distribution of poverty. Remember that next time you hear a Democrat talk.
