We Aren't All the Same

Occasionally it's useful to remind ourselves of the variety of Americans and their different circumstances. It's too easy in debates to have a picture in our mind of the standard, garden-variety American and not to test the picture against reality:

• Some Americans don't have phones. See the graph in this piece, which is mostly focused on the growing percentage of Americans who have only wireless service, but the survey shows about 2 percent don't.
• Some Americans don't have official proof they were born, and have a somewhat ambiguous status. See this piece on native Americans crossing borders.