"As Chart 2 shows, 78 percent of poor households had air conditioning, 64 percent had cable or satellite TV, and 38 percent had a personal computer."
The idea here is to justify cutting taxes on the rich because the "poor" have cable TV and air conditioning. What's amazing and saddening to me is not the stupidity of Heritage's argument, but how convincing and serious their argument is going to look to a lot of people, including a lot of the lucky poverty stricken ones the study claims to show are not poverty stricken.
Things like refrigerators and computers are not luxuries anymore. If 99% of households have a refrigerator, it is pretty clear that they are standard equipment. Computer ownership might look different, but it's really not. Its almost impossible to work or find work in modern America without computer skills and internet access.
Heritage is being sneaky here. Comparing poor Americans' material possessions to those of the third world poor is an assholish tactic. "See, you've got it better than those sad bastards in Mumbai! Stop your whining!" is not going to work on me.
Also, what Atkins said.
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