By Tom Morgan

 

The poor may be always with us. But they are fewer in number than we are often led to believe.

This is the point Douglas Besharov makes. He studies social welfare at the American Enterprise Institute.

As you know our government calculates our poverty rate. The Census Bureau does it. It tells us the poverty rate is a $20,000 income for a family of four. It adjusts that upward every year.

The bureau tells us 12.7 percent of Americans fall below that poverty line. Social critics wail that this shows no improvement over the years. They remind us 12.8 percent of Americans fell below the poverty line as far back as 1968.

Mr. Besharov begs to differ.

First he has us look at other measures of poverty. And at the material well-being of our poor. And at how it has improved. About 93 percent of the poor own color televisions. Half own air-conditioning. Nearly half own their own homes.

You can google the subject and find more evidence. The amount of living space. The number of cars. The amount of food they can afford. All these have increased over the years for the poor.

Then Mr. B. has us look at the hundreds of billions of dollars our poor receive by way of various benefits. We can look at this through a new report from the Census Bureau.