Charts of the Day: It's Getting Better All The Time

Great stuff from Steve Horwitz over at Austrian Economists on the modern enrichment of America's poor:

% Households with:	Poor 1984	Poor  1994	Poor 2003	Poor 2005	All 1971	All 2005
Washing machine	58.2	71.7	67.0	68.7	71.3	84.0
Clothes dryer	35.6	50.2	58.5	61.2	44.5	81.2
Dishwasher	13.6	19.6	33.9	36.7	18.8	64.0
Refrigerator	95.8	97.9	98.2	98.5	83.3	99.3
Freezer	29.2	28.6	25.4	25.1	32.2	36.6
Stove	95.2	97.7	97.1	97.0	87.0	98.8
Microwave	12.5	60.0	88.7	91.2	1.0	96.4
Color TV	70.3	92.5	96.8	97.4	43.3	98.9
VCR	3.4	59.7	75.4	83.6	0.0	92.2
Personal computer	2.9	7.4	36.0	42.4	0.0	67.1
Telephone	71.0	76.7	87.3	79.8	93.0	90.6
Air conditioner	42.5	49.6	77.7	78.8	31.8	85.7
Cellular Telephone			34.7	48.3	0.0	71.3
One or more cars	64.1	71.8	72.8 (2001)		79.5
source:  http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/extended-05.html and prior years

As we can readily see, America's poor (i.e., those officially below the poverty line) own a lot more household "necessities" today than they did only 20 years ago.  And what about the gap between rich and poor?  On that issue, Horwitz offers a follow-up chart:

% Households with:	Poor 2003	Rich 2003	2003 gap	Poor 2005	Rich 2005	2005 gap	Gap change
Washing machine	67.0	94.8	27.8	68.7	95.2	26.5	-1.3
Clothes dryer	58.5	93.6	35.1	61.2	94.3	33.1	-2.0
Dishwasher	33.9	86.1	52.2	36.7	88.4	51.7	-0.5
Refrigerator	98.2	99.6	1.4	98.5	99.8	1.3	-0.1
Freezer	25.4	44	18.6	25.1	43.7	18.6	0.0
Stove	97.1	99.6	2.5	97.0	99.7	2.7	0.2
Microwave	88.7	98.6	9.9	91.2	98.8	7.6	-2.3
Color TV	96.8	99.5	2.7	97.4	99.5	2.1	-0.6
VCR	75.4	97.7	22.3	83.6	98.5	14.9	-7.4
Personal computer	36.0	87.9	51.9	42.4	92.7	50.3	-1.6
Telephone	87.3	98.6	11.3	79.8	97.1	17.3	6.0
Air conditioner	77.7	90.3	12.6	78.8	89.1	10.3	-2.3
Cellular Telephone	34.7	88.6	53.9	48.3	92.4	44.1	-9.8

As the chart makes clear, the gap has narrowed in 10 of 13 categories in only 2 years, and the only product with a large increase is landline telephones - something that is easily explained by the large increase in poor cellphone ownership.  Finally, these charts inspired Mark Perry to issue his own awesome chart on the cost of these household necessities in terms of hours worked to pay for them:

Very cool.  As we can see from Perry's chart, the average American today has to work far fewer hours than they did in 1973 to buy basic household items.  As such, they're far better off today than they were back then. Indeed, all of these charts make clear that we should be very, very suspicious when we hear politicians lamenting the worsening state of America's "poor."

I think the charts speak for themselves, but I'll still offer up a post-script: one of the big things driving these figures is open trade with China and other low-cost countries. Indeed, according to University of Chicago's Christian Broda and John Romalis, "[M]uch of the rise of measured income inequality has been offset by a relative decline in the prices of products that poorer consumers buy." And China, as the primary manufacturer of such "products," is one of the main drivers of their price declines.