The Left (read Democrats) are always about helping the poor – too bad that they they don’t actually ever review their programs to see if:
- did it work
- do other programs enhance the first one or screw it up?
The underlying question that many Conservatives have is: what is poor? Really poor? It seems that the international standard is either $1 or $2 / day. Here in the US? Well, certainly there was some "feedback" over this post ("the poor of the world should be so rich as our poor….").
Well, I ran across this post over at Cafe Hayek that pointed over to The Austrian Economists one that had US Census data that pointed out the relative Consumption inequality (vs Income inequality):
| % Households with: | Poor 1984 | Poor 1994 | Poor 2003 | Poor 2005 | All 1971 | All 2005 |
| Washing machine | 58.2 | 71.7 | 67 | 68.7 | 71.3 | 84 |
| Clothes dryer | 35.6 | 50.2 | 58.5 | 61.2 | 44.5 | 81.2 |
| Dishwasher | 13.6 | 19.6 | 33.9 | 36.7 | 18.8 | 64 |
| Refrigerator | 95.8 | 97.9 | 98.2 | 98.5 | 83.3 | 99.3 |
| Freezer | 29.2 | 28.6 | 25.4 | 25.1 | 32.2 | 36.6 |
| Stove | 95.2 | 97.7 | 97.1 | 97 | 87 | 98.8 |
| Microwave | 12.5 | 60 | 88.7 | 91.2 | 1 | 96.4 |
| Color TV | 70.3 | 92.5 | 96.8 | 97.4 | 43.3 | 98.9 |
| VCR | 3.4 | 59.7 | 75.4 | 83.6 | 0 | 92.2 |
| Personal computer | 2.9 | 7.4 | 36 | 42.4 | 0 | 67.1 |
| Telephone | 71 | 76.7 | 87.3 | 79.8 | 93 | 90.6 |
| Air conditioner | 42.5 | 49.6 | 77.7 | 78.8 | 31.8 | 85.7 |
| Cellular Telephone | 34.7 | 48.3 | 0 | 71.3 | ||
| One or more cars | 64.1 | 71.8 | 72.8 (2001) | 79.5 |
I think these data largely speak for themselves. The only categories where the poor have become "worse off" are in freezers (likely due to more being built into fridges) and now telephones, which is, of course, explained by the gains in cell phones. Stoves are down slightly, but that too could be due to swapping regular stoves for microwaves or even toaster ovens. In any case, it’s a pretty small decline.
The overall lesson is clear: lives for Americans below the poverty line continue to get better in terms of what they are able to put in their households and have to make use of everyday. And do note that the average American household in 2005 was doing much better than its 1971 counterpart. MUCH better
Sure, the goods bought by the upper class may be of better quality or have more features, but it shows that from an "item basis" the vaunted inequality touted by the Left seems to lose a bit of steam.
This is followed up with another chart:
| % Households with: | Poor 2003 | Rich 2003 | 2003 gap | Poor 2005 | Rich 2005 | 2005 gap | Gap change |
| Washing machine | 67 | 94.8 | 27.8 | 68.7 | 95.2 | 26.5 | -1.3 |
| Clothes dryer | 58.5 | 93.6 | 35.1 | 61.2 | 94.3 | 33.1 | -2 |
| Dishwasher | 33.9 | 86.1 | 52.2 | 36.7 | 88.4 | 51.7 | -0.5 |
| Refrigerator | 98.2 | 99.6 | 1.4 | 98.5 | 99.8 | 1.3 | -0.1 |
| Freezer | 25.4 | 44 | 18.6 | 25.1 | 43.7 | 18.6 | 0.0 |
| Stove | 97.1 | 99.6 | 2.5 | 97 | 99.7 | 2.7 | 0.2 |
| Microwave | 88.7 | 98.6 | 9.9 | 91.2 | 98.8 | 7.6 | -2.3 |
| Color TV | 96.8 | 99.5 | 2.7 | 97.4 | 99.5 | 2.1 | -0.6 |
| VCR | 75.4 | 97.7 | 22.3 | 83.6 | 98.5 | 14.9 | -7.4 |
| Personal computer | 36 | 87.9 | 51.9 | 42.4 | 92.7 | 50.3 | -1.6 |
| Telephone | 87.3 | 98.6 | 11.3 | 79.8 | 97.1 | 17.3 | 6.0 |
| Air conditioner | 77.7 | 90.3 | 12.6 | 78.8 | 89.1 | 10.3 | -2.3 |
| Cellular Telephone | 34.7 | 88.6 | 53.9 | 48.3 | 92.4 | 44.1 | -9.8 |
As you can see, the gap has narrowed in 10 of 13 categories. One category stayed constant (freezers), while stoves widened slightly.,,
…Some will object that the rich are so close to 100% that there’s little room for them to gain while the poor have more space to move up. True enough. But isn’t that the point?! What do the rich do? They end up being first adopters of new technologies, such as color TVs years ago or cellphones today. The price of those technologies drops and the poor find them progressively more affordable, narrowing a new gap. The more that the distance between the poor and the rich becomes about who gets the latest technology first and less about who has basic comforts and enough to eat, I’d say inequality is shrinking. The distance between the rich and poor today is vastly smaller than that between the rich and poor of 100, 200, or 500 years ago.
When you look at our poor (here in the US), it is clear that the perceived wage inequities trumpeted by the Left looks a bit shallow when the material possessions between the groups are compared.
And yes, for the nit-pickers, a 10 year old Chevy is not the same as a brand new rolls. Look, I have an 11 year old Suburban – I do NOT begrudge the Rolls owner at all. I still maintain that our poor would be considered rich in most areas of the world…
"Do not covet your neighbor’s possessions"
(just because they have and you do not – that means – just work HARDER and SMARTER!)
