Today, according to the 2000 census, 46% of all poor households in our country, own their own homes. 76% of poor households have air conditioning, while 30 years ago, only 36% of the entire US population enjoyed air conditioning.
In 1973, the average new house had 1660 square feet. Today the average new home being built is 2,434 square feet. The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other cities throughout Europe. (Note: These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries not to those classified as poor.) I remember hearing at the Jerusalem Model at the Holy Land that in Israel’s early days, the average home in Jerusalem had only 300-600 square feet.
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30% own two or more cars. Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television. Over half own two or more color televisions. Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player. Sixty-two percent have cable or satellite TV reception. Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens; more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher. As a group the poor are far from being chronically undernourished. Most poor children today are in fact super-nourished, on average growing up to be one inch taller and ten pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II. (Poverty, American Style, by FairOpinion, Oct. 13,2003).
These are those described by our government as being “poor” and yet the poor in this country are better off than the majority of people in the rest of the world.
How did this come about? It came about because of the blessings of God and through a work ethic based on Christian principles; something we often refer to as the Christian work ethic.
As we continue our study of Genesis, it is interesting to note in Genesis 2:15, that God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and that while they were there, they were expected to work. Verse 15 says that God placed man in the Garden to work it and watch over it.