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You've clearly never spent any time in a real poor neighborhood. Or, more likely - you consider the lower middle class "poor" by your inflated Silicon Valley s
by a_gentle_autist 12y ago
You've clearly never spent any time in a real poor neighborhood.
Or, more likely - you consider the lower middle class "poor" by your inflated Silicon Valley standards.
Reminder: avg. US HOUSEHOLD income is 52K/year.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago68% of US Households with income under $50,000 have at least 1 HDTV. http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/030714release.html http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/030714release.html
- pessimizer 12y agoSo 2/3s have had $200 once? http://www.amazon.com/RCA-Class-720p-60Hz-Rear/dp/B00LUZ91D6 http://www.amazon.com/RCA-Class-720p-60Hz-Rear/dp/B00LUZ91D6
- waterlesscloud 12y agoPerhaps. That just supports the OP's post, though. Material goods are cheap.
- a_gentle_autist 12y agoOkay?
- Someone1234 12y agoAll TVs are "HDTVs." That 68% will be near 100% (of TV users) once more TVs die in the next few years. If I go onto Amazon right now, filter sellers by Amazon.com, sort by low to high, and look at the cheapest two TVs: Samsung UN24H4000 720p: $147.75 and LG 22LB4510 1080p: $159. Both "HD." So, using HDTVs as a metric of poverty is dumb. They're the only game in town.
- waterlesscloud 12y agoRight. So things which were once luxuries are now common and cheap. Which was the point.
- Someone1234 12y agoSounds like a nice way to dismiss all Western poverty ever. Have running water and electricity? Clearly not poor... Just pick anything that 90%+ of the population have: internet, electricity, gas, water, a car, heating, a telephone line, etc and then declare it your "line" for poverty.
- waterlesscloud 12y agoThat's not the point under discussion.
- Someone1234 12y agoWhat exactly is the "point under discussion" then? Because it sounds pretty close to that if that isn't it.
- andywood 12y agoI don't think TVs were ever really a luxury in the US, except in contrived Internet arguments about the lifestyles of 10th century kings, where they absolutely always were.
- logfromblammo 12y agoFurthermore, television is a means of mass communication that allows the few media companies to disseminate their own message to a receptive audience. As a cheap source of entertainment, it also occupies and pacifies the public. If poor people could not afford televisions, they would likely be subsidized. The food stamp program provides the bread, and broadcast television provides the circuses. How about tracking something that rich folk would be nervous about the poor people owning, like long arms or dissenter-friendly networks? How many poor people own an AR-15 and a software-defined radio?
- pessimizer 12y agoThat's the average, but the median is more like $30K. Income inequality, and all that.
- humanrebar 12y agoAnd the average household size is much smaller than it used to be due to declining birthrates, higher rates of divorce, higher rates of single-parent households, etc. http://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-households-in-the-us/ http://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-ho... ...also a huge number of people live in low cost of living areas. I have friends and family out in rural areas with perfectly comfortable lifestyles who wish they made 52k a year.