There is a great article discussing Alan Reynold's new book, "Income and Wealth" over at TCS daily that prompted me to remember this. As a long time employee of Domino's pizza I already knew that America's "poor" are actually quite rich. Let me briefly explain.
Each week as a Domino's driver I would routinely delivery the most pizza to trailer park homes, rent-controlled welfare housing, and low-income apartments. Thats right, not to the houses by the country club, not to up scale apartments, and not even to soldiers but rather the working poor. Our "working poor" can afford to have food cooked by someone else and then pay to have it driven to their doorstep. On top of this they usually tip! now I have been in some countries that actually have a class of "working poor" and they couldn't imagine how wonderful a life of "American poverty" would be. The working poor in many other countries do not live in furnished trailers, or spacious rent-controlled apartments, no they live in shanty's on hillsides and scavenge for better plastic to put on the roof.
Our poor can shop for groceries at 7-11, talk to their relatives on cell-phones that are so cheap as to be virtually free, buy lottery tickets by the dozen, or save that money for enough malt liquor to choke a horse. Don't beleive me? Just go hang out at the 7-11 next to any low-rent district or rent-controlled welfare project. Add that anecdotal experience to this from the article :
"Reynolds makes it a slam-dunk by citing data from the aforementioned Cox and Alm and from Kirk Johnson showing that the average poor family in 2001 did as well as or better than the average family in 1971 in ownership of motor vehicles, air conditioners, color TVs, refrigerators, VCRs, personal computers, and cell phones. Of course, the last three didn't exist in 1971, but that's part of the point. When poor families can afford what even middle-income families couldn't imagine having 30 years earlier, aren't things working out pretty well?"
Well yes, yes they are actually.
