Some of those programs are clearly constitutionally authorized, like the FBI whose purpose is to protect the rights of citizens.
What you originally stated: Even the poorest of Americans are swimming in material wealth. Middle class America even more so. The vast vast majority of middle class Americans own so much crap that if they just did not buy it they could easily save money.
AND THEN YOU MODIFIED IT TO THIS> I said even the poorest Americans are swimming in wealth and you said that was quicksand. But the National census says:
Let's look at housing. Forty-one percent of the poor actually own their own homes, typically a three-bedroom house with one-and-one-half baths. It is in good repair, and has a garage or carport, and a porch or patio. The median value of these homes is $65,000, which is 70 percent of the median value of all American homes.
Americans, poor and non-poor, live in large and spacious housing. Only 2 percent of America's poor are overcrowded (defined as living with more than 1.5 persons per room). On average, America's poor have 440 square feet of living space per person. This is more than the average citizen in Paris, Berlin, and London; nearly three times the average in the capitals of such nations as Poland and Mexico; and nearly seven times greater than the average in poor nations such as China and India.
Modern conveniences are commonplace-and some nearly ubiquitous-among America's poor. About 70 percent of poor households own a car or truck, and more than a quarter own two or more cars. Two-thirds of the poor have air conditioning, and a similar number have microwaves. Nearly half of all poor households own two or more color television sets. Almost three-quarters of the poor now have VCRs.
Then there is the matter of hunger. Advocates tell us that 35 million Americans live in its grip. But government surveys don't bear this out.
Asked if they have enough food to eat, 96 percent of Americans answer yes.
The surveys also show that the diets of the poor and those of the middle class have a similar nutritional content. Poor children and middle-class children consume almost identical amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals, in most cases well above recommended norms.
In truly poor countries, malnutrition keeps children from growing. The World Health Organization finds that 39 percent of children in Africa, and 47 percent of those in Asia, are stunted. Only 2.7 percent of poor American children fall below this low-height threshold-the normal level one would expect, given ordinary genetic variation.
The poor do, however, suffer from one major nutrition-related health problem: obesity.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_20_51/ai_56220678/
