He claims capitalism hasn't helped the poor, we need socialism

Why do you think capitalism has so poorly served the lower income and poor? Have you ever seen a list of the consumer goods that even low income people can afford in the U.S.? The typical poor household (in 2011), as defined by the government, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there are children, especially boys, the family has a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation. The household has a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave, also a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker. Do you know any low income people who don’t have a smart phone? (We don’t.)

 

I don’t know about you, but in 1960 when we set up our first apartment, we had a 10 year old car, b&w TV (gift from my in-laws), a refrigerator and stove (bought used) from this list, and we didn’t think we were poor, just newlyweds. Now we’re retired on pensions, and we have everything on this list, except the gaming systems.  We bought our first color TV in 1967, at $375, which would be about $2700 today’s money, and you can buy an HDTV set for $200 today. Same with computers and printers. I now have a desk top computer, a wireless printer, a laptop, an i-pad, a nook and an i-pod for less than my first computer in the 1990s.

The poor in U.S. also have larger houses than socialist countries and even before Obamacare, the poor reported not having a problem with healthcare, since we already had 5 systems to take care of them, plus ERs in hospitals were required to take them.

 

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty

 

The poor have less than the top 20%, true, no trips to China or Mongolia, no celebrity parties like the Obamas go to, no BMWs or Lexus in the drive-way, instead they probably go to Disney or 6 Flags or Cedar Point, but compared to poor or even socialist countries, U.S. people living at the poverty level (government standard) have a lot, and it's because of competition and capitalism, and that is increasingly being done overseas because of the enormous number of regulations and hostile business environment in the U.S., and the hostility of our government toward our golden goose—capitalism.We've become consumers instead of workers who consume. 

 

During the Obama years, only the top 20% have made any gains in wealth, everyone else has been flat, so those socialist and regulatory burdens are working well for the wealthy, and not so good for the rest of us.