Should America Change Its Poverty Line?

[erpowers]

Last year I had talked with someone who claimed the American poverty line was too low. I did not disagree with the person, but today I was given a stat that claimed that the poverty line is $13 a day for a family of four. That seems very low. If you divide by four that would come to just over $3 a day for each person. I have a box of cereal that cost almost that much. I would not be able to afford the milk that goes with that cereal. I do not really see how someone can live on $3 a day. Therefore, it seems that the poverty line should be raised. It just seems that $13 a day for a family of four is fairly low in terms of a poverty line. So, what do others think? I realize people below the poverty line get government help, but if the poverty line is too low there may be people who need help who cannot get that help because they are above the poverty line.

[JeffR]

1. The official government measures have remained unchanged for 40 years, with some minor tweaking, but

some experts contend it's drastically inadequate as a viable standard of measure.

From Wiki:

The U.S. poverty threshold in particular has been criticized for understating poverty, by using an outdated "basket of goods" to set the standard. While cost of these goods is adjusted for inflation every year, the basket of goods itself remains the same. It excludes the cost of items that were rare among poor Americans in the 1950s, but which are now common, such as a telephone, a car and a microwave oven. Mollie Orshansky, who devised the original goods basket and methodology to measure poverty, used by the U.S. government, in 1963-65, suggested an updated list in 2000. She found that the point where a person is excluded from the nation's prevailing consumption patterns, is roughly 170% of the official poverty threshold.<11>

Furthermore, in developed countries, such as the U.S., poverty tends to be cyclical. Thus, the poverty line only indicates how many people are poor at any one point in time. It does not report the number of people who will experience poverty during their lifetimes. In the U.S. for example, roughly 12%-13% fall below the poverty line in any given year, but roughly 40% will experience poverty at some point over a ten-year timespan.<12>

[tabbycat31]

2. absolutely

In fact I would go as far as allowing states or counties to determine their own poverty lines. Because a family of four making 21,200 (the 2008 poverty line) would do much better in rural Kansas than they would in New York City.

[bbinacan]

8. I agree

because the cost if living differs greatly across the country.

[Thickasabrick]

3. Not just yes; hell yes. It's totally absurd where it is now. eom

[Hello_Kitty]

4. $13 a day is less than $400 a month. That's WAAAAY below the poverty line in the U.S.

Are you sure that's not some worldwide poverty figure?

[Suich]

5. According to Wiki, HHS has it a lot higher:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Scroll down a little bit.

[readmoreoften]

7. This wiki article references the Heritage Foundation. I'd be skeptical about its interpretations.

"The Heritage Foundation speculates that illegal immigration increases job competition among low wage earners, both native and foreign born. Additionally many first generation immigrants, namely those without a high school diploma, are also living in poverty themselves.<44>"

Especially the Heritage Foundation SPECULATES. Good god. That shouldn't be in there.

[Kokonoe]

6. Poverty line of family of four is 21,027. $14.40 per person a day.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh07.html

[hfojvt]

9. that's what I think the original stat was

$13 per person per day.

[TheBigotBasher]

10. The UK Poverty line

is half of average earnings