standard of living in the usa is sinking ...., page-11

Interesting stats on America's poor according to Robert E Rector Phd 'Understanding Poverty in America'.

- The poverty line is any household earning under $22k with a family of four or more.

Of those households they provide the following:

- "46 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a threebedroom house with oneandahalf baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

- 76 percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

- The average 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 citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

- Nearly threequarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars. Ninetyseven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

- 78 percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

- 73 percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

- As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middleclass children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higherincome children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier that the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II."