Americans living "in poverty"...

Aside from the simple reality that "poor" Americans still live better than most of the rest of this planet's 6 billion residents, the message being peddled by communists in Democrat clothing via the MSM about the "poor" in America is simply a lie.

Here's one example from a Palm Springs, CA newspaper:

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, American television viewers were aghast at the sight of thousands of poor people who did not have the resources to flee the city before it flooded.

That same week, the Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans living in poverty rose in 2004 for the fourth consecutive year to 37 million, or 12.7 percent, up by 5.4 million from 2000.

What they never tell you is what "living in poverty" actually means. They know that most people who read their "news" story will automatically dream up pictures in their heads of starvation, squalor, sickness, homelessness, etc...

Not to mention, these "news" stories are designed on the notion that it is the responsibility of "society" to see that everyone in that "society" has some minimum standard of living, an idea which is not realistic nor beneficial to most members of society.

According to the US Census Bureau, a person is in poverty if his income for a given year does not meet or exceed a given "poverty threshold". In 2004, a four person household with two children under 18 has a threshold of $19,157.

A person who works a full-time, minimum wage job grosses just over $10,000 in a year. If two parents both work a 40 hour per week job all year, they are not "living in poverty".

Not to mention, wealthy people who recognize no income (other than capital gains) during a given year are considered to be "living in poverty".

College students who do not live in a dormitory are "living in poverty", though many receive loans, grants or support from family.

Also, since the thresholds do not vary by geographical area, someone living in an expensive area (urban/suburban areas in the northeast or west coast) making $15,000 is deemed to be in an identical financial position as someone living in a very inexpensive area (rural areas in the South).

Of course, the communist left in America has so skewed our culture that it is now racist or bigoted to even suggest that the time-tested family planning model of graduating high school, getting married, then having kids actually proves superior to single-parenthood by high school dropouts who rely on the taxpayer for survival.

The State has replaced the father, and I believe this effort has been pushed forward deliberately and systematically. Karl Marx would be proud to know that his ideas, though empirically discredited, have been almost fully adopted in America.