Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (341501)	6/27/2007 8:21:41 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577962

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.