Miscalculating Poverty

Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite economists, has noted that “ If there were a contest for the most misleading words used in politics, ‘poverty’ should be one of the leading contenders...”

                           

Having grown up in poverty, and oppressive discrimination, Mr. Sowell knows well of what he speaks.

                           

But the “poverty-stricken” of the U.S. today, for the most part, have cars, color cable TVs, air conditioners, their own homes and other amenities, that the poor of other nations would never dream of ever possessing.

                           

As Thomas Sowell says, “ This is not just a question of semantics. The whole future of the welfare state depends on how poverty is defined. 'The poor' are the human shields behind whom advocates of ever bigger spending for ever bigger government advance toward their goal. "

                                      

After all, how would the liberals sell their bigger government without poverty propaganda?  (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)