I would have to agree that income statistics don't tell the whole story of American living standards. Take Joe Blow college student for example. Here he or she is in school maybe working, maybe not, but more than likely working for a low income wage. But all the while, somehow, living a pretty darn decent life with having the means to pay for rent, food, tuition, books, cell phones, clothing, ipods, bicycles, booze and entertainment. There are also the students who even have expensive car payments along with gas, insurance, maintenance, and stiff parking fees.
So where does a full time student spending $15,000 to $20,000 a year or more acquire that kind of money to spend? Though some very dedicated students work both at school and job, most are finding ways to live for now and pay back later or have some other situation worked out with their parents or extended family. So with the help of credit cards, student loans, trust funds, financial aid, grants, under the table work, part time, and full time work, and maybe the occasional bet or hustle of this or that..we end up spending more annually than it shows we make. So, sorority sister Sally who drives a brand new Audi A7, with a $500 hand bag complete with matching heels and a recent trip to the beauty salon for all those can't go without essentials, comes up on the national income census as living in poverty.This is clearly not poverty. And we all know this doesn't stop with Sally.
Why not look to people’s consumption rates for a means of determining more accurate American living standards? Cox and Alm were right, if you look at peoples income you see a much larger gap between the top fifth and the lower fifth, when you look at consumption rates, that gap shortens substantially. Americans are living better on less than they ever have as a result of international trade, and I agree that we should be looking at consumption rates instead of income rates. Also, with using consumption rates, we have the opportunity to look into many more areas of American life than with income rates.
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From week two's "On 'Bioregionalism' and 'Watershed Consciousness'"
"The rule of thumb is to 'maintain diversity, save all the parts.' They may be the unwitting architects of a new popular geography, a grass roots geography with 'heart,' a different kind of activits, radical geography that should be uniquely compatible with the environmental concerns we traditionally have shared."
Great article...
I appreciated reading this article on how to measure poverty through spending rather than income because after traveling a great deal, I've seen some pretty extreme poverty compared to what is seen here in the U.S. and even the poorest among us are not poor compared to some other places. Some poor even have their own cars to sleep in! Not to make light of their situation or anything, but we do have it really good here in the U.S.
I worked with a girl years ago in my own poor days (I'm a bit older now...not a typical college student) who complained every day how she just wasn't making it financially to support her children because her husband didn't make much money. She was sick of just scraping by. In the next breath she'd be bragging about how they just signed up for $125/month cable with all the premium channels, then talk about their $350/month car payment. Most of those who cry poor-mouth really could just learn how to spend more wisely.
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