And don’t forget the reverse mortgage, people! Considering that so much of our national economic policy relys on the assumption of inherited wealth (read: “The Hidden Cost of Being African-American”), it’s worse than what you think, and it’s been going on for quite awhile.

From what I’ve observed, your situation is pretty common for people at the low end of the income scale. I have a friend who also made less than $10,000, and she had three TVs until recently. All had been gifts, and one was broken and another had a badly fading picture.

I think that the main trouble with this NYT article is the failure to distinguish between low income people who are big consumers, which would include retirees spending down their savings and people spending insurance or inheritance windfalls, and low income earners who consume relatively little. By focusing on the first group, the authors are able to come to the conclusion that real poverty is almost unheard of in the US.

And by ignoring nonmaterial concerns, like the stress that comes from knowing that you might get evicted if you can’t find someone to lend you money, or that you’re one catastrophic illness away from being in debt for the rest of your life, the authors can conclude that being poor isn’t so bad after all.

(For the record, I’m now in the ridiculously tiny percentage of people with high incomes and I like having money. I just don’t feel that requires me to crap on poor people in the process.)

I have a TV. Up until December, our television was older than I was. Then grandma moved to a smaller place, and my parents gave me her old and now too big 20″ TV. It is not new enough for digital. It’s the biggest TV I’ve ever had. My DVD came from friends who got it free with a purchase they needed to make.

In a few months, the health issues may be under control. We might have 2 jobs each and build up our savings again, so the one valid point in the article is that poverty might not be permanent.

I don’t own a television, DVD player, or VCR. Computer takes care of all that for me.

Also, another reason this index is so skewed is that things like tvs, stereo equipment, and telephone sets (and even, to some extent, computers and cell phones) have been around long enough for them to be scroungeable. Don’t tell me nobody here has ever bummed a tv off a relative who got a new one, or found a perfectly good small appliance or piece of furniture at the curb.

Word to that! Looking around my apartment, here’s what I see:

-Shelves (2), got from a friend who was tossing them

-beige couch, got from stepmother when she combined houses with my dad

-two ottomans that go with the beige couch.

-brown couch (OH NOES THEY DON’T MATCH) that we had when I was growing up. It’s been bounced back and forth between my mom’s, my uncle’s and now it’s mine.

-computer table. I don’t know WHERE this one came from - I think my mom picked it up for like $5 when her old company got bought out and they were cleaning inventory.

-computer chair, a birthday gift from my father.

-low, long table (1 ft high), also hand-me-down of unknown origin

-a nifty little endtable I found by the dumpster one day. It’s perfectly good, I don’t know why someone was throwing it out. I even smelled it, just to be safe (had to get it away from the dumpster first for accurate reading)!

-a chair found at same dumpster.

-blue cushy chair I manhandled for a few blocks on bulky pick-up day (I love bulky pick-up day)

-minifridge from college, currently used only as a lamp stand. The lamp was another “had it growing up” item.

-folding table with two chairs. Gift from mother. Probably $25 at Target or somewhere.

-mattress + box spring, gift from former roommate when he bought a humongous king-sized bed. Prior to that I was on a small twin mattress, on the floor, with a foam pad on top (pretty undersized when you’re well over six feet tall)

So with the exception of the minifridge and computer chair, I don’t think I own a single piece of furniture that WASN’T either dumpster-retrieved, a hand-me-down, or found at a garage sale/clearance sale.

Now these lower orders want health care, vacations, lunch breaks, and pensions. Isn’t it enough for them to know that they are serving the gloriousness that is me?

Next thing you know, they’ll want to eat bread.