However, the picture painted by the Census Bureau (the three posts above) is not quite as it seems. Definitions alone do not explain issues of terrible poverty amongst certain parts of the American population. The 'parts' are usually single mothers, Blacks and Hispanics. Older people are beginning to enter the picture and are more likely to live in a terrible poverty. And some will argue that possession of a television or microwave oven should be an indicator that the people are not REALLY in poverty, and if they were they'd sell their TVs and microwaves and get OUT of poverty, they would be doing America a favour. IMO, those people have their heads firmly lodged somewhere.