re: Average family size is down, so even when the building is the same size you have more space per person. In any case the average home size across the country is up, as are homeownership rates and the average size of apartments. That includes in the inner city, as a decent portion of the old housing for the poor from a few generations ago no longer exists.
Average this, average that. What does a "decent portion" mean? You think the working poor own their own homes?
re: It turns out that many poor people today own appliances that were considered luxuries when I grew up, and some would still be considered luxuries today. For example, 91 percent of those in the lowest 10 percent of households — all of whom are officially poor — own color TVs, 74 percent own microwave ovens, 55 percent own VCRs, 47 percent own clothes dryers, 42 percent own stereos, 23 percent own dishwashers, 21 percent own computers, and 19 percent own garbage disposals.
When I grew up in the 1950s, only the wealthy owned color TVs, clothes dryers, stereos, dishwashers, and disposals. These were all considered luxuries. We got by with black-and-white TVs, hanging our wet cloths on a line to dry, washing dishes by hand, and throwing our potato peels in a pail instead of down the drain. So did most other middle-class families. Not even the wealthiest people owned microwave ovens, VCRs, or computers.
That's hysterical. In the '50's, microwave ovens, VCRs and consumer computers didn't exist. |
