http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2011/09/2011915172736118705.html

From your own article.

The American lifestyle

Being poor in America is not that bad, according a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has analysed Tuesday's census data. Eighty per cent of poor households have air-conditioning, 92 per cent have a microwave, and 42 per cent of poor people own their own home.

One third of poor Americans have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV and two thirds of poor Americans have DVD players.

Researcher Timothy Smeeding scoffs at this analysis. "I reckon two people at the Heritage Foundation spent more on lunch today than the cost of a DVD player," he said. "There are certain things that have become regular parts of life."

Unlike much of the world, poverty in the US "does not mean living on a dollar per day". It is more like "eight dollars per person, per day", Smeeding said.

Back at the food bank in Tennessee, Marcia Wells knows poor Americans still have an easier time than people in much of the world. "I certainly see that our problems seem tame when compared to abject poverty and hunger you see in other countries," she said. "But it is all relative and [food insecurity] is no less real here, in relation to the American lifestyle."