Social media is always such a fun place. Read a post bemoaning everything the poster claimed was wrong with the U.S.
Some one replied with the following and these figures are, in fact, true
- 99.8% are not homeless
- 97% own a cell phone and 90% of those are “smart phones”
- 97% own a TV
- 94% of households own at least one computer
- 94% have internet access and 92% have high speed Internet access
- 92 % households own at least one car
- 91% have cable or streaming services
- 86% are “food secure”
Note about “food insecurity”
It means they experienced difficulty affording food at some point during the year
Food insecurity does NOT mean:
- the household is starving
- the household lacks food every day
- the household is homeless
- the household has no access to food assistance
- the household has no kitchen or appliances
Many food insecurity surveys rate “insecurity” as not having what you wanted to eat, at some point during the prior 12 months. It does not necessarily mean they had no food – but had to make substitutions.
Someone can be food insecure without experiencing hunger (e.g., by eating smaller portions or relying on less preferred foods), but severe food insecurity often results in hunger.
Prior to the mid-1990s, agencies attempted to measure “hunger”, but the definitions were changed in the 1990s. This was popularized when the USDA adopted the terminology in 2006 to include “very low food security” and “low food security” rather than “hunger”, which is a specific feeling someone has when they are hungry. Poor food security can lead to hunger. Since 2006, public metrics now focus on “food security” which is not the same as “hunger” or “starvation” or “malnutrition”.
However, since this used to labeled as “hunger”, many media reports feature anecdotal stories and conflate the concepts of “hunger” and “food security”, even though they are not the same. Similarly, some advocacy groups focus on the “hunger” label but using the food security percentages.
The claims made are frequently misleading as detailed in my post from 2017: 1 in 7 Americans do not go to bed hungry every night – Social Panic
