The passages below were quoted directly from
The Myth of Widespread American Poverty
by Robert Rector
"If poverty is defined generally as lacking adequate nutritious food for the family, clothing, and a reasonably warm and dry apartment to live in, or lacking a car to get to work when one is needed, then there are few poor persons remaining in the United States. Real material hardship does occur, but it is limited in extent and severity. The bulk of the "poor" today live in material conditions that would have been judged comfortable or well-off just a few generations ago.
The following facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau are taken from various government reports:
In 1995, 41 percent of "poor" households actually owned their own homes. The average home owned by a person classified as "poor" has three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Over three-quarters of a million "poor" persons own homes worth over $150,000; and nearly 200,000 "poor" persons own homes worth over $300,000.
Only 7.5 percent of "poor" households are overcrowded. Nearly 60 percent have two or more rooms per person.
Seventy percent of "poor" households own a car; 27 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of the "poor" have a color television. Nearly half own two or more color televisions. Nearly three-quarters have a videocassette recorder, and more than one in five has two VCRs. Sixty-four percent own microwave ovens, half have a stereo system, and over a quarter have an automatic dishwasher.
Two-thirds of "poor" households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
As a group, the "poor" are far from being chronically hungry and malnourished. In fact, poor persons are more likely to be overweight than are middle-class persons. Nearly half of poor adult women are overweight.
Despite frequent charges of widespread hunger in the United States, 84 percent of the poor report their families have "enough" food to eat; 13 percent state they "sometimes" do not have enough to eat, and 3 percent say they "often" do not have enough to eat.
The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children, and in most cases is well above recommended norms.
Most poor children today are in fact super-nourished, growing up to be, on average, one inch taller and ten pounds heavier that GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II."