Re:You misunderstand what it means to be poor
by js2 on Friday November 14, 2025 @02:47PM
(#45931294)
I think @reaperducer is talking about being able to afford electricity, not whether it's available:
> In 2020, 34 million U.S. households (27% of all U.S. households) reported difficulty paying energy bills or reported that they had kept their home at an unsafe temperature because of energy cost concerns.
> The shutoffs epidemic is growing. Households had their power cut more 1.5 million times in the first 10 months of 2022 (the most recent data available), a 29% increase since the same period last year. In that same period, households were also disconnected from gas more than 380,000 times, a 76% increase over 2021.
When it comes to plumbing, there are households that literally don't even have access to it:
> According to American Community Survey (ACS) data from the Census Bureau, 522,752 US households lacked complete plumbing access in 2021. Of these households, 347,943 didn’t have a bath or a shower, 419,971 lacked hot or cold running water, and 246,884 had neither.
> Nationwide, the United States has made great strides in improving water and sewerage access since the 1970s, when 3.5 million households lacked indoor running water and a flush toilet. Still, in 2021, more than half a million US households (1,100,000 people) lacked running water in their homes
> In 2020, 34 million U.S. households (27% of all U.S. households) reported difficulty paying energy bills or reported that they had kept their home at an unsafe temperature because of energy cost concerns.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=51979
Another site claims:
> The shutoffs epidemic is growing. Households had their power cut more 1.5 million times in the first 10 months of 2022 (the most recent data available), a 29% increase since the same period last year. In that same period, households were also disconnected from gas more than 380,000 times, a 76% increase over 2021.
https://energyandpolicy.org/utility-disconnections-in-the-un...
When it comes to plumbing, there are households that literally don't even have access to it:
> According to American Community Survey (ACS) data from the Census Bureau, 522,752 US households lacked complete plumbing access in 2021. Of these households, 347,943 didn’t have a bath or a shower, 419,971 lacked hot or cold running water, and 246,884 had neither.
https://usafacts.org/articles/us-households-with-plumbing-po...
> Nationwide, the United States has made great strides in improving water and sewerage access since the 1970s, when 3.5 million households lacked indoor running water and a flush toilet. Still, in 2021, more than half a million US households (1,100,000 people) lacked running water in their homes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-024-00180-z