I’ve known it for years, and those persons who work in law enforcement, the fire service, EMS response, welfare fraud investigations, probation, parole, know one very important and salient thing:

Those persons deemed “poor” and who have been generationally not only dependent and expectant, but normed and standardized on welfare, aren’t really poor. It’s a lifestyle. A lifestyle they have purposely chosen, inculcated and interwoven into their families and friends, and a lifestyle that not only pays well but enables some families to live in better conditions than you and me. And a lifestyle choice that the governments — federal and state — have promoted with wild abandon over the years.

When Liberals started paying women for welfare babies, and greater amounts of money for more babies — absent fathers — then fathers became superfluous and costly. Liberals, frankly, killed the once-solid nuclear black family and denigrated black males. Black males became disenfranchised and unnecessary. So black males turned to each other. And thence to gangs.

And the gangbanger was born. Thanks to Liberals and Leftists across the nation.

And that gangbanging, defeatist, non-achieving, damaging mindset was embraced by all other then-minority classes, to include Mexicans (though Mexicans have a history of gangs — witness the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles), Asians and finally Caucasoids.

I still think there’s nothing funnier than some white cracker kid with his pants below his butt, exposing dotted boxers, hat turned backwards, tatted-up with Olde English script, unlaced shoes, pierced eyebrows, saying “yo” and “know what I mean?” Dude, your future includes cleaning some of the finer bathrooms in a local county jail. Know what I mean?

And, in truth, what does modern American “poverty” truly denote (and I use the word “poverty” loosely and, clearly, in quotes)? From the National Review Online:

Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox

July 18, 2011 10:39 A.M.

By Ken McIntyre

When Americans think of poverty, we tend to picture people who can’t adequately shelter, clothe, and feed themselves or their families.

When the Census Bureau defines “poverty,” though, it winds up painting more than 40 million Americans — one in seven — as “poor.”

Census officials continue to grossly exaggerate the numbers of the poor, creating a false picture in the public mind of widespread material deprivation, writes Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Robert Rector in a new paper.

“Most news stories on poverty feature homeless families, people living in crumbling shacks, or lines of the downtrodden eating in soup kitchens,” Rector says. “The actual living conditions of America’s poor are far different from these images.”

Congress is tying itself in knots figuring out how to cut spending and bring down a $14 trillion national debt. Lawmakers might well take a much closer look at the nearly a trillion dollars spent each year on welfare even though many recipients aren’t what the typical American would recognize as poor and in need of government assistance.

There is no widespread deprivation in the United States of America. There are no people living in cardboard boxes who aren’t single, male, mentally unbalanced and — still — some of them purposely choose to live like that. It’s a concept that many people can’t fathom but it’s true. A large percentile of the “homeless” choose to live their lives like that.

Each city and county has any number of publicly-funded programs (courtesy of your local, state and federal tax dollars) directly targeted at layer after layer of the “poor.” Only the truly insane don’t take advantage of those programs because they can’t comprehend them. And those persons comprise an infinitesimal percentile of the concerned population.

The “poor” in my county drive a Lexus, a Mercedes-Benz or the ever-popular BMW. 740s are quite popular with the “minorities” who are now a majority in my state. And funded by MY tax dollars. They live in rental multi-bedroom homes, condos, duplexes. Most do not live in high-unit apartment complexes because that’s beneath them.

To continue:

What is poverty? Americans might well be surprised to learn from other government data that the overwhelming majority of those defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau were well-housed and adequately fed even in the recession year 2009. About 4 percent of them did temporarily become homeless.

Data from the Department of Energy and other agencies show that the average poor family, as defined by Census officials:

● Lives in a home that is in good repair, not crowded, and equipped with air conditioning, clothes washer and dryer, and cable or satellite TV service.

● Prepares meals in a kitchen with a refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave as well as oven and stove.

● Enjoys two color TVs, a DVD player, VCR and — if children are there — an Xbox, PlayStation, or other video game system.

● Had enough money in the past year to meet essential needs, including adequate food and medical care.

You want to see actual squalor? You only have to watch the introductory minutes of the 2008 movie “The Incredible Hulk” starring Edward Norton. Those minutes introduce the slums of Rocinha, an “upscale” favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Americans historically and currently languishing in abject poverty? Bullshit. Unmitigated bullshit. Been there, done that, seen it all. And it’s a load of Leftist crap.

Above, a Shantytown in Kiberia, Kenya. Yes, these people live beneath paper and fabric and carpet and burning material in a public dump.

However, with this very important caveat:

When (not if) the federal and state governments pull back their rations of monthly Free Cheese to include physical support as well as monthly checks, there will be riots — by so-called “minorities” — who believe they are clearly entitled to Free. Generation after generation after generation.

They are the Lexus/iPhone welfare itinerants.

Except that they’re not itinerant, and they’re not poor.

Federal government statistics already prove this.

BZ