New Wingnut Argument: The Poor Aren't Actually Poor

Lisa Fabrizio argues that poor people aren't really that poor.

Are you like me? If you are, you're constantly amazed by and grateful for the bountiful opportunities this country affords to anyone willing to work for them. Living as I do in the New York metropolitan area, I've seen places that were formerly considered the 'wrong side of the tracks' transformed into beautiful apartment complexes. And in my own previously all-white neighborhood, we have a great assortment of families of all colors and creeds living in houses that only a generation ago would have been impossible for them to afford.

Go into almost any store or shop and you're likely to see all types of folks walking around on their expensively clad feet, swiping their credit and ATM cards with their carefully manicured hands. Drive through any neighborhood in any town — even in run-down areas — and check out the crowded restaurants while perusing the satellite dishes adorning the homes; homes filled with purchases that were once considered luxury items that now grace even the most humble of abodes.

She then cites some totally awesome stats from something called the Heritage Foundation that prove that poor people have all kinds of luxury items and aren't actually poor. Just a couple:

- Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

- Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Never mind the truth of the stats, the main points are:

1. Suck It, John Edwards! Don't Talk About Two Americas. There's Only One!

2. Poor People, Even Though I've Just Proven They Don't Exist, Are Only Poor Because They're Lazy!

A one, and a two, and, Lisa, take us out...

But although our poor are better off than those in most of the world — so much so that millions of impoverished foreigners are willing to risk their lives and break our laws to join them — some Americans do live in unfortunate, if not dire, circumstances. Of course, the major difference is that the poor in this country have the opportunity to improve their lot.

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All Americans used to know the way to prosperity for themselves and their families. It was, and is pretty basic: a two-parent family working as diligently as possible...

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This, of course, is a truth that Edwards and friends cannot bear to hear or admit. To placate their diverse voting blocks — feminists, race-baiters, gays and socialists — their aim is to keep the 'lower' classes low by demeaning marriage, exalting 'single moms,' encouraging race and class envy, and subsidizing all of the above under the guise of 'helping the poor.'

This is a new angle for me: Democrats Are Making Up "The Poor" to Demean People Who Already Have Satellite Dishes!

Excuse me, I'm off to work on my application to join the cool kids at Single Mom Magazine...I exalt them!