Here are some statistics and facts that I found to be extremely surprising: (most from the US Census Bureau)

1. Poverty is classified by the US Census Bureau based on number of family members and number of children under 18, so by way of example, a family with 2 adults and 2 children would be below the poverty line if they earn less than $21,027 annually.

2. Among households classified as in poverty, 76% have air conditioning, 97% have at least one color television, 78% have a DVD player/VCR, 62% have satellite/cable TV, 73% have microwaves, and almost 75% have at least one car.

<--- (American Poverty)

3. Here's a big one: 46% of poverty-classified households own their own home, and the average home owned by poverty-classified households has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a garage, and a patio/porch.

4. The average person (not household, PERSON) classified in poverty has 439 square feet of living space to themselves (ie if 3 people share a 1,500 SF house, they'd each have 500 SF). This is less than the average citizen (not person in poverty, but AVERAGE CITIZEN) in Munich, London, Vienna, Paris, Athens, and almost any non-American city worldwide.

5. According to surveys of those classified as in poverty, only 4% reported severe physical problems with their residence. Of that 4%, half reported "having to share a bathroom" as the severe physical problem.

Still not to the Unfounded Opinions yet, but we'll get there.

It turns out that almost every measure that describes the average person in poverty, also describes me. I actually lost money in 2008, which offsets my roommate's income and puts us below the poverty line. Our 2008 house was 906 SF, or 453 per person, we did not have satellite TV, the house only had 2 bedrooms, no garage, no patio or porch. Oh, and we had to share a bathroom, which apparently was a "severe physical problem" in our house.

Wow, I can officially say I've lived in poverty. That's kind of cool (actually it was a really bad year and I hate the world now, but instead of going out and shooting a few dozen people over it, I started a blog). I think that means I can get away with writing this kind of stuff... right? Hehe.

(International Poverty)------>

Let's have an Unfounded Opinion or two, shall we?

1. Americans, even those who live in poverty, live better than almost anyone else in the world, but they whine a lot harder than citizens of other countries.

2. What's the real difference between someone living in poverty in America and someone who's not? Standard of living? Possibly, but more likely it has more to do with whether or not you were raised to value things like education over things like shooting someone because they looked at your Iroc wrong.

3. Tempting as it is to pin our national misconceptions about poverty on one or another political party, the fact is that both parties throw around hyperbolic cries of poverty in America when it suits them to achieve some political goal. But you'll never hear any of these stats from a politician because it's not "politically correct" to say that our poor people live like kings compared to anyone else in the world.

4. The next time I hear someone talk about the tragedy of abject poverty in this country, I'm going to hand them a fistful of deeds to rental properties in "poverty-stricken" neighborhoods, and give them a first-hand window into poverty in America.

...rant complete. Whew!