The San Francisco Chronicle’s Debra Saunders is wondering what exactly constitutes “Poor” and “Near Poor” in 2011. She specifically cites this NY Times article that describes as “near poor” a family with 2 cars, a Blackberry, and a $230,000 house.
Might anyone know what constitutes “poor” in Canada these days?
Robert
I might qualify as poor, I have no big screen tv, No credit card, no mortgage, no car loans, no granite countertops, mis-matched dishes and chipped coffee cups…good enough?
Poor is an attitude,,, broke is a condition.
I might be poor. No flat screen, no car loan, no mortgage, no plastic, mis-matched dishes and chipped coffee cups…good enough?
I do not have children but apparantly if your teenager does not have an I-pod you are considered poor.
When I was a kid, people with color television were considered rich.
Times have changed, not for the better.
The facebook generation is going to hell…
As the Occutwits0153™ have made abundantly clear, they are all “poor”, and anyone with anything more than they have is “rich”, and that the twits are therefore entitled to take it. Remember, they don’t believe in “private property”, only “personal property”.
The following article (Nov. 9/2011) in the National Review about the new method of measuring poverty from is a worth reading –
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/282634/obama-s-new-poverty-measure-spreads-wealth-robert-rector
“Thus, by this measure, even if the income of all Americans doubled immediately, poverty would not decrease, because the income thresholds would also double. Only if the incomes of the poor rise more quickly than those of the rest of the population would poverty decrease.
Although the old measure was inaccurate, the new measure is much worse. It will ensure that “poverty” can’t be alleviated except by extreme income leveling. The new measure is designed to provide a never-ending argument for the Left to insist that we must continue to “spread the wealth,” as President Obama put it so memorably when he was Candidate Obama, by throwing more money into welfare programs.”
Poor as a mental state: People who say they are poor will never be anything but. They have accepted their lazy life-style of surrender and pan-handling various government agencies, with great conviction.
Being broke and living small for a normal person is temporary. Whether simply being very young and starting out, or having made mistakes and now paying the price …. normal people don’t say I’m poor, they say …”I’m broke”, but I have a plan to change that.
Been there, done that …. the latter that is … and more than once. I have never considered myself poor at the worst of times. That is a mind and spirit destroying thought.
Governments like calling ‘poor’ people poor. Why is that?
If the poor on this continent are obese, have the toys known as i-PODs and live in comfortable homes, who then is poor? What do we call the poor suckers in North Korea?
Unbelievable.
these asshats don’t know what poor is, they will claim it as being relative, just so they can continue sucking on the gubment “poor industry” teet
The real poor are to sick to work, or those marginalized because they don’t fit into a neat category. Most are single these days, or have no families.
When wealth is lost, nothing is lost.
When health is lost, something is lost.
When character is lost, all is lost.
That is the state of being truly poor.
Pt. 73 of “80 points to know”. (Goju Ryu Karate Do)
I don’t have a fancy riding mower. I’m pretty sure that makes me poor. I’ve never had one, but if I did, I’m almost certain a hypothetical wealthy oligarch, dressed in a top hat, spats, and a monocle, would have stolen it out from under me.
Hypothetical rich people are always robbing me of my imaginary possessions.
Therefore, I DEMAND SOCIAL JUSTICE!
In Canada you’re poor if you can only afford Basic Cable and not the premium tier.
In 1994, my wife and I financed a new mini-van and secured a $110,000 mortgage for a bigger house at the same time that our combined income with three kids put us below the poverty line as defined by Stats Can. Hmmmm….
Didn’t one of those socialist claptrap outfits (Canadian center for policy alternatives, maybe) include a family vacation (~$2000-$2500 worth) in the “minimum liveable income” calculation last year??? And then tried to actually justify it…..
By this American definition of the “near poor” then I’m definitely poor. Maybe I should go occupy something to protest my poverty.
Want to see poverty in Canada? Check out a Reserve.
Well,certain parts of a Reserve,Ed.
Poverty in reserves?
Actually considering how much money we give them and how little expenses they have those people act poor by choice but they are NOT poor.