The "welfare recipients with plasma TVs" is a common trope that comes up every election, but is (almost) entirely untrue. I've actually lived on the wrong side

The "welfare recipients with plasma TVs" is a common trope that comes up every election, but is (almost) entirely untrue. I've actually lived on the wrong side of the tracks in a poverty-stricken industrial city. The reality is that most people don't have big screen TVs. The home of the average poor person that I've seen, welfare or otherwise, is pretty damned frugal. The few that do - and they do exist - finance these luxuries via rent-to-own shops and loans. You know you're in a poor part of town when suddenly all the payday loan places and rent-to-own places pop up. As one might expect, these luxuries never actually last very long. Not only do these people not have the actual financial ability to afford them, but they acquired them on predatory rates (either loan or rent-to-own terms). These items are repo'ed quickly. So, in summary, the bulk of the poor don't live on expensive hardware. There are some that (unwisely) acquire expensive hardware with the help of predatory lenders, but don't get to keep it. The myth of the ever-idle welfare recipient, munching cheetos while hanging out in front of their big screen TV, is very much just that: a myth.