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This picture<\/a> in the of a resident of publicly subsidized housing in New Orleans playing with an ipad sparked a hailstorm of responses. Among the most generous of them was this one,<\/p>\n “Not to rush to comment. I hope this is nothing more than someone gave him the iPad as a gift and he is using it for educational means or just playing games … I hope I am not over thinking this. I am not prejudice (sic) — this just did not look right.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Putting aside the speaker’s imaginings of what the child could be doing with the ipad besides educating himself or playing games, I publish the picture and comment here because the reaction says a lot about how we perceive poverty, and what makes one “deserving” of help when one is poor in the U.S. Saying that this child holding an ipad outside a housing project doesn’t “look right,” suggests that maybe, just maybe, he and his family are playing us in order to avoid work while living high, suggesting a lot about what what we think of the poor and what they need to suffer in order to deserve our assistance.<\/p>\n This same mindset is revealed in a rant on poverty that appeared in the National Review.<\/a><\/p>\n The suggestion here is that there is something wrong with poor people having the amenities listed above in their homes. In another article on the same subject, heritage.org<\/a> runs this chart alongside one showing what non-poor households have, suggesting there’s very little difference in the “conveniences” that poor families have as compared to middle class families.<\/p>\n Note here that the “conveniences” include a refrigerator, a stove and oven, an air conditioner, and a microwave oven. Apparently a refrigerator is considered a luxury for poor people who ought to be packing their perishable foods in bags of ice or, alternatively, living on pre-cooked foods, much of which can’t be purchased with food stamps, and fast food, pretty much all of which are out of bounds.<\/p>\n Imagine living in a poorly ventilated apartment as an elderly person or a parent with an infant in New York City in August without an air conditioner. That could be life threatening. And microwave ovens are often in the homes of poor people instead of ranges. Or they are used because a microwave is cheaper to run.<\/p>\n Apparently, in order to be among the deserving poor in the U.S., one must also live in misery. No refrigerator or stove, no air conditioning or fans, TV, or clothes washers. Or perhaps the suggestion is that one should sell all of these items to put off going on public assistance.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/global.nationalreview.com\/dest\/2011\/07\/18\/special_amenities_and_poor_list.jpg\")
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