Spending Flat Screen Poor

AMY, MY FELLOW MEALS ON WHEELS DELIVERY PERSON, drives through the ratty trailer park, until we finally find the right ratty trailer. I get out, with a warm lunch in my hand, and knock. On the warped wooden front porch sit five cats, who sluggishly scatter as I approach. The trailer is rusty, looking much in need of....something. This is my first time running a route. Amy, long familiar with every consumer, gives me whatever information I need before each trip to the front door. This one, she says, will take a few minutes, but I will be greeted by a nice, soft spoken elderly woman. After a long pause, a little old lady in a bathrobe cracks open the door, and I can see into the room behind her. She smiles, mentions that she has not seen me before, and I introduce myself. In the room behind her, I notice complete chaos; junk piled high, newspapers and some paper trash lying about, holes in the carpet, large stains. Then, in the corner, I notice a huge, beautiful flat screen TV, turned on, with a huge, beautiful picture, pimple free people smiling..When I return to the car I cannot help but mention it to Amy, the seeming incongruity between the run down modest dwelling, the apparently poor occupant, and the big beautiful, presumably expensive television set. It makes me wonder if the lady has other electronic devices, hidden bank accounts, hidden wealth. Amy agrees with me. Both of us think its somehow out of place, funny. We think its very funny. In fact, I have always thought it funny, when I see something like that. Several times I have seen unshaven men dressed in ragged clothes standing in front of Wal Mart, pan handling, talking on smart phones. That's always seemed kind of funny to me. This incongruity can be seen fairly often among America's poor. Conservatives consider this phenomenon absolute proof that the entire welfare system is a bleeding heart liberal hoax, a scheme to cheat wealthy people, whom they supposedly resent, out of their money, to create an entire, permanently dependent class of loyal democrat voters. People don't need the government to support the poor and make them dependent on government handouts; the poor need work. Obviously, there is truth to that, but not enough truth. It fails to take into considerations the real, complicated reasons for widespread poverty in America, which go far beyond individual laziness. Not enough truth to justify terminating all cash transfer programs, or any of them, which would only plunge millions of people deeper into poverty. These poor people with big TVs may have saved nickels and dimes for years to pay for the flat screen, or, they may have received the gadget as a present from family members. The point is, we want the poorest people in American to be able to afford a flat screen now and then, whether they work for it or not, whether they get their income through employment or through social security or welfare. Every time somebody buys a flat screen, businesses make money, people get jobs, and the economy grows. The more people who spend and consume, the better for us all, for the country. The key to making capitalism work is not cutting taxes on the wealthy, it is increasing the market place, increasing demand for goods and services, by getting money into the hands of people who do not have any, turning poor people into consumers, with growing demand from a growing consumer class of formerly poor people resulting in increased production and supply, and more jobs. You sometimes wonder why conservative Republicans, who tend to believe in capitalism, or claim they do, apparently fail to understand such a basic truth about the free market, and capitalism.