Opponents of government aid to the poor often argue that the poor are not really poor. The evidence they are fond of is often an inappropriate comparison, usually with people in other countries: “Thus we can say that by global standards there are no poor people in the US at all: the entire country is at least middle class or better” (Tim Worstall in Forbes). Sometimes the comparison is with earlier times, as in thisquote from Heritage’s Robert Rector: “'Poor' Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average US citizen throughout much of the 20th Century.”
[For more of this story, written by Jay Livingston, go to http://www.psmag.com/business-...r-comparatively-rich]
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