Thom Hartmann: Why Should It Matter If Poor People Own a TV or Not?

[thomhartmann]

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 7pm and 10pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[SheilaT]

1. While I am one who will often question

the spending choices of others, to say or even imply that you can't possibly be poor if you own a TV, even a wide screen one, or a computer. For one thing, who knows for sure when or how those things were purchased? Maybe they were bought used, or maybe someone gave them the TV or computer when a new one was being purchased.

Heck, while I am not in the category of the poor, anyone else could also look at how I spend my money and find fault with at least some of it. So long as no one is doing anything illegal or harmful to others, leave them alone.

[DhhD]

2. Where is a analogue TV sold these day? Who repairs and what repairman can get analogue repair

parts or a picture tube; maybe in Mexico? Does this guy work part time in the shell game at gambling halls? Has he every been to a Good Will Industries or other charitable outlet or church depot? No maybe.

Seems like his writings, would be bogus in nature. He seems to be very ethnocentric and has not walked in the shoes of the poor.

[allan01]

3. hem

who the hell are u hertatige foundation? fuck u . i am low income . and what business is it is urs . tv is my only source of entertainment i have so fuck u

[Old Crow]

6. You must surrender your TV.

If you are low-income, shadow puppets made on the cracked plaster walls of your tenement shall be your only permissible form of evening entertainment. The well-do-do occasionally watch TV and your enjoyment of it is making them uncomfortable. Any questions or concerns concerning this bulletin may be addressed to the Heritage Foundation.

[Kalidurga]

4. You can get a TV for under 200 dollars.

If there two adults and a child or two in a household that tv will provide a lot more entertainment for the buck than say going to movies or even out for free events (which have costs if you don't walk or will be out for more than a couple hours, ie transportation, food). And it is a source for news and news alerts like storms. I don't think that is a waste of 75cents a day for about a years time. Also most poor people hold on to things like TVs for a long time. I have had my TVs on average of 5 years at a time. My daughter still has the TV I got her for X-mas in 2005 it still works and plays DVDs.

[yeoman6987]

7. 75 cents a day? If only that were true

I would love to have television for that low. First the TV is 200.00. The cable is 170.00. The electricity is 70.00 in electricity if you limit it to 5 hours a day. However still nobody's business.

[starroute]

9. Where in the world do you get those numbers?

Cable tv rates are hard to find online, but they seem to start at about $40 for expanded basic. I never heard of anyone paying over $100 -- though perhaps you could get to $170 if you had every premium channel that was available.

As for electricity -- one website says "Most TV's use about 80 to 400 watts, depending on the size and technology. Using a sample cost of 15¢ per kilowatt-hour and five hours of viewing a day, that's $1.83 to $9.13/mo. ($22 to $110 per year)." Another one estimates that a 55" plasma TV drawing 136 watts would cost $27.25 a year at 11 cents per kwh. (Rates seem to run between 10 and 18 cents depending on location.) So unless you max out both the wattage and the rate, you're talking about $5 a month.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Rector

Ah, yes, Rector.

From Democratic Underground, 2002:

Please click here.

[starroute]

8. If they want to encourage marriage, they should put fewer black men in prison

Studies have shown that women marry men who can provide financially for their children. Men who can't find jobs, or who are in and out of prison, are more of a net drain on a family than they are a provider. Women might hang out with those men or even have children by them, but they have no incentive to marry them.

It's also been shown that the white underclass has increasingly been falling into the "black" pattern of single motherhood over the last couple of decades, as poor white men have also become unable to find steady work.

More jobs, a higher minimum wage, and ending the war on drugs would do a lot more to reduce poverty than moral lectures about the virtues of marriage.