What You Need to Know About the Minimum Wage: "Data from the most recent census, however, reveal that those who are officially classified as 'poor' by the United States government possess a surprising amount of wealth. The official 'poor' are not that poor after all. For example, for those persons classified as 'poor,' 46% own their own home and 76% have air conditioning. More than 66% of the 'poor' have more than two rooms of living space per person. In fact, the average 'poor' United States citizen has more living space that the average citizen (not 'poor' citizen) living in Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom; 97% of the official American 'poor' own a color television and over half own more than one; 62% of the 'poor' have either cable or satellite television. Far from being undernourished, the 'poor' have a greater obesity problem than the rest of the population. The most common hardship that most poor people face is making late rent and utility payments."