REDEFINING 'POOR' IN AMERICA

A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, founds that luxury goods that few could afford in 1968 are now standard in most households, including 'poor' ones:

• In 2005, a full 85 percent of households that were classified as poor by the Census Bureau had air conditioning (compared to only 36 percent in 1971).
• Some 97 percent had a color television (compared to 40 percent in 1971) and 40 percent had an automatic dishwasher (as opposed to 20 percent in 1971).
• Almost 100 percent owned a refrigerator (compared to 25 percent in 1971).

Yet, the wealth accumulation of the last 40 years has also made the government bigger. Real federal spending increased from $774 billion in 1968 to $2.5 trillion in 2008 -- a 225 percent increase -- and federal spending per household grew from $11,800 to roughly $21,000 over that period, in constant dollars.

[I.e., we've made 'helping the poor' and industry in this country - not surprisingly, the definition of 'poor' keeps ratcheting upward to assure they can continually report more and more people 'falling into it'.]

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