Poverty in the United States is cyclical in nature with roughly 13 to 17% living below the federal poverty line at any given point in time, and roughly 40% falling below the poverty line at some point within a 10-year time span.^[1] Most Americans (58.5%) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75.^[2] There remains some controversy over whether the official poverty threshold over- or understates poverty.

The most common measure of poverty Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language is the "poverty threshold" set by the U.S. government The federal government of the United States is the central government entity established by the United States Constitution, which shares sovereignty over the United States of America with the governments of the individual U.S. states. For official purposes in U.S. courts, the government is sued as the United States of America, and is referred to. This measure recognizes poverty as a lack of those goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society.^[3] The official threshold is adjusted for inflation In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit using the consumer price index A consumer price index is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. A consumer price index measures a price change for a constant market basket of goods and services from one period to the next within the same area (city, region, or nation). It is a price index determined by measuring the price.

Relative poverty The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries describes how income relates to the median income, and does not imply that the person is lacking anything. In general the United States has some of the highest relative poverty The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries rates among industrialized countries, reflecting both the high median In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numeric value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one. If there is income and high degree of inequality.^[4] In terms of pre-transfer absolute poverty The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries rates, in 2000 the United States ranked tenth among sixteen developed countries, though it should be noted that 2000 was a 'trough' year and subsequently absolute poverty rates have increased.^[5]. The US does worse in post-transfer absolute poverty rates.^[6] According to a 2008 report released by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire Coordinates: 43°08′08″N 70°56′00″W / 43.13556°N 70.93333°W The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire (USNH), United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in, on average, rates of poverty are persistently higher in rural and inner city parts of the country as compared to suburban areas.^[7][8]

Measures of poverty

Measures of poverty can be either absolute or relative.

Two official measures of poverty

There are two basic versions of the federal poverty measure: the poverty thresholds (which are the primary version) and the poverty guidelines. The Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy issues the poverty thresholds, which are generally used for statistical purposes—for example, to estimate the number of people in poverty nationwide each year and classify them by type of residence, race, and other social, economic, and demographic characteristics. The Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America". Before its education functions were split off in 1979, it issues the poverty guidelines for administrative purposes—for instance, to determine whether a person or family is eligible for assistance through various federal programs.^[10]

Since the 1960s, the United States Government has defined poverty in absolute terms. When the Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963. He served in all four federal elected offices of the United States: Representative, Senator, Vice President and President administration declared "war on poverty The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent. The speech led the United States Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity" in 1964, it chose an absolute measure. The "absolute poverty line" is the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health.

The "Orshansky Poverty Thresholds" form the basis for the current measure of poverty in the U.S. Mollie Orshansky Mollie Orshansky, , was an American economist and statistician who, in 1963-65, developed the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds, which are used in the United States as a measure of the income that a household must not exceed to be counted as poor was an economist working for the Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits. To qualify for these benefits, most American workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; future (SSA). Her work appeared at an opportune moment. Orshansky's article was published later in the same year that Johnson declared war on poverty. Since her measure was absolute (i.e., did not depend on other events), it made it possible to objectively answer whether the U.S. government was "winning" this war. The newly formed United States Office of Economic Opportunity adopted the lower of the Orshansky poverty thresholds for statistical, planning, and budgetary purposes in May 1965.

The Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP)) adopted Orshansky's definition for statistical use in all Executive departments. The measure gave a range of income cutoffs, or thresholds, adjusted for factors such as family size, sex of the family head, number of children under 18 years old, and farm or non-farm residence. The economy food plan (the least costly of four nutritionally adequate food plans designed by the Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food. It aims to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers, promote agricultural trade and production, work to assure food safety, protect natural resources,) was at the core of this definition of poverty.^[11]

The Department of Agriculture found that families of three or more persons spent about one third of their after-tax income on food. For these families, poverty thresholds were set at three times the cost of the economy food plan. Different procedures were used for calculating poverty thresholds for two-person households and persons living alone. Annual updates of the SSA poverty thresholds were based on price changes in the economy food plan.

Two changes were made to the poverty definition in 1969. Thresholds for non-farm families were tied to annual changes in the Consumer Price Index A consumer price index is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. A consumer price index measures a price change for a constant market basket of goods and services from one period to the next within the same area (city, region, or nation). It is a price index determined by measuring the price (CPI) rather than changes in the cost of the economy food plan. Farm thresholds were raised from 70 to 85% of the non-farm levels.

In 1981, further changes were made to the poverty definition. Separate thresholds for "farm" and "female-householder" families were eliminated. The largest family size category became "nine persons or more."^[11]

Apart from these changes, the U.S. government's approach to measuring poverty has remained static for the past forty years.

Recent poverty rate and guidelines

The 2008–09 poverty threshold was measured according to the Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America". Before its education functions were split off in 1979, it Poverty Guidelines^[12] which are illustrated in the table below.

SOURCE: Federal Register The Federal Register , abbreviated FR, or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the Federal Government of the United States that contains most routine publications and public notices of government agencies. It is a daily (except holidays) publication, Vol. 74, No. 14, January 23, 2009, pp. 4199–4201^[13]

Numbers

The official number of poor in the United States in 2008 is about 39.1 million people, greater in number but not percentage than the officially poor in Indonesia Poverty in Indonesia is a widespread issue though in recent years the official numbers show a declining trend. Due to the dense rural nature of parts of the Java, Bali, Lombok, and parts of Sumatra, poverty can be classified into rural and urban poverty. Urban poverty is prevalent in not only in Jabotabek, but also in Medan and Surabaya. As a, which has a far lower Human Development Index The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used as an index to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate developed (high development), developing (middle development), and underdeveloped (low development) countries. The statistic is composed from statistics for Life Expectancy, Education, and GDP collected at and the next largest population after the United States.^[14][15] The poverty level in the United States, with 12.65% (39.1 million people in poverty, of a total of 309 million) is slightly lower than in France, where 13.4% (8 million people in poverty, of a total of 65.4 million) of the population live in poverty. ^[16][17]

Relative measures of poverty

Another way of looking at poverty is in relative terms. "Relative poverty" can be defined as having significantly less access to income and wealth than other members of society. Therefore, the relative poverty rate can directly be linked to income inequality. When the standard of living among those in more financially advantageous positions rises while that of those considered poor stagnates, the relative poverty rate will reflect such growing income inequality and increase. Conversely, the poverty rate can decrease, with low income people coming to have less wealth and income if wealthier people's wealth is reduced by a larger percentage than theirs. In 1959, a family at the poverty line had an income that was 42.64% of the median income. Thus, a poor family in 1999 had less income and therefore less purchasing power than wealthier members of society in 1959, and, therefore, "poverty" had increased. But, because this is a relative measure, this is not saying that a family in 1999 with the same amount of wealth and income as a family from 1959 had less purchasing power than the 1959 family.

In the EU The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and for the OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 32 countries. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a setting to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identifying good practices, and co-ordinating domestic, "relative poverty" is defined as an income below 60% of the national median In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numeric value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one. If there is equalized disposable income Disposable income is total personal income minus personal current taxes. In national accounts definitions, personal income, minus personal current taxes equals disposable personal income. Subtracting personal outlays (which includes the major category of personal consumption expenditure) yields personal (or, private) savings after social transfers for a comparable household. In Germany, for example, the official relative poverty line for a single adult person in 2003 was 938 euros per month (11,256 euros/year, $12,382 PPP. West Germany 974 euros/month, 11,688 euros/year, $12,857 PPP). For a family of four with two children below 14 years the poverty line was 1969.8 euros per month ($2,167 PPP) or 23,640 euros ($26,004 PPP) per year. According to Eurostat Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide the European Union with statistical information at European level and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across the Member States of the European Union, candidate countries and EFTA countries. The the percentage of people in Germany living at risk of poverty (relative poverty) in 2004 was 16% (official national rate 13.5% in 2003). Additional definitions for poverty in Germany are "poverty" (50% median) and "strict poverty" (40% median, national rate 1.9% in 2003). Generally the percentage for "relative poverty" is much higher than the quota for "strict poverty". The U.S concept is best comparable to "strict poverty". By European standards the official (relative) poverty rate in the United States would be significantly higher than it is by the U.S. measure. A research paper from the OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 32 countries. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a setting to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identifying good practices, and co-ordinating domestic calculates the relative poverty rate for the United States at 16% for 50% median of disposable income and nearly 24% for 60% of median disposable income^[18] (OECD average: 11% for 50% median, 16% for 60% median).

The income distribution and relative poverty

Although the relative approach theoretically differs largely from the Orshansky definition, crucial variables of both poverty definitions are more similar than often thought. First, the so-called standardization of income in both approaches is very similar. To make incomes comparable among households of different sizes, equivalence scales are used to standardize household income to the level of a single person household. In Europe, the modified OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 32 countries. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a setting to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identifying good practices, and co-ordinating domestic equivalence scale is used, which takes the combined value of 1 for the head of household, 0.5 for each additional household member older than 14 years and 0.3 for children. When compared to the US Census poverty lines, which is based on a defined basket of goods, for the most prevalent household types both standardization methods show to be very similar.

Furthermore, the poverty threshold in Western-European countries is not always higher than the Orshansky threshold for a single person family. The actual Orchinsky poverty line for single person households in the US ($9645 in 2004) is very comparable to the relative poverty line in many Western-European countries (Belgium 2004: €9315), while price levels are also similar.^{[citation needed]} The reason why relative poverty measurement causes high poverty levels in the US, as demonstrated by Förster^[18], is caused by distributional effects rather than real differences in wellbeing among EU-countries and the USA. The median household income is much higher in the US than in Europe due to the wealth of the middle classes in the US, from which the poverty line is derived. Although the paradigm of relative poverty is most valuable, this comparison of poverty lines show that the higher prevalence of relative poverty levels in the US are not an indicator of a more severe poverty problem but an indicator of larger inequalities between rich middle classes and the low-income households. It is therefore not correct to state that the US income distribution is characterised by a large proportion of households in poverty; it is characterized by relatively large income inequality but also high levels of prosperity of the middle classes. The 2007 poverty threshold for a three member family is 17,070.

Poverty and demographics

In addition to family status, race/ethnicity and age also correlate with high poverty rates in the United States. Although data regarding race and poverty are more extensively published and cross tabulated the family status correlation is by far the strongest.

Poverty and family status

According to the US Census, in 2007 5.8% of all people in married families lived in poverty,^[19] as did 26.6% of all persons in single parent households ^[19] and 19.1% of all persons living alone.^[19]

By race/ethnicity and family status

Among married families: 5.8% of all people^[19] including 5.4% of white persons,^[20] 8.3% of black persons,^[21] and 14.9% of Hispanic persons (of any nationality) ^[22] were in poverty.

Among single parent families: 26.6% of all persons,^[19] including 30% of white persons,^[20] 40% of black persons,^[21] and 30% of Hispanic persons (of any nationality) ^[22] were in poverty.

Among unrelated individuals and people living alone: 19.1% of all persons,^[19] including 18% of white persons ^[23] 27.9% of black persons ^[22] and 27% of Hispanic persons (of any nationality) ^[24] lived in poverty

Poverty and race

The US Census declared that in 2008 13.2% of all people,^[25] including - 8.6% non-Hispanic White - 11.8% Asian-American - 23.2% Hispanic (of any nationality), - 24.7% African-American lived in poverty.

Poverty and age

The US Census declared that in 2007 12.5% of all people including - 18% of all people under age 18 - 10.9% of all people 19-64, and - 9.7% of all people ages 65 and older, lived in poverty ^[19]

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses a different measure for poverty and declared in 2008 that child poverty in the US is 20% and poverty among the elderly is 23%.^[26] The non-profit A non-profit organization is an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Examples of NPOs include charities (i.e. charitable organizations), trade unions, and public arts organizations. Most governments and government agencies meet this definition, but in advocacy group Feeding America has released a study (May 2009) based on 2005-2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy and the Agriculture Department The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food. It aims to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers, promote agricultural trade and production, work to assure food safety, protect natural resources,, which claims that 3.5 million children under the age of 5 are at risk of hunger in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. The study claims that in 11 states, Louisiana Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current, which has the highest rate, followed by North Carolina Spanish colonial forces were the first Europeans to make a permanent settlement in the area, when the Juan Pardo-led Expedition built Fort San Juan in 1567. This was sited at Joara, a Mississippian culture regional chiefdom near present-day Morganton in the western interior. This was 20 years before the English established their first colony at, Ohio The government of Ohio is composed of the executive branch, led by the Governor; the legislative branch, which comprises the Ohio General Assembly; and the judicial branch, which is led by the Supreme Court. Currently, Ohio occupies 18 seats in the United States House of Representatives. Ohio is known for its status as both a swing state and a, Kentucky Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that native bluegrass is present in many of the pastures throughout the state, based on the fertile soil. It made possible the breeding of high-quality livestock, especially thoroughbred racing horses. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources,, Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the, New Mexico The state's total area is 121,412 square miles . The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and three miles (5 km) west of 103.5° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with, Kansas Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison. It was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-, South Carolina The colony was originally named in honor of King Charles I, as Carolus is Latin for Charles, Tennessee The State of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. In the, Idaho Idaho is a mostly mountainous state, with an area larger than all of New England. It is landlocked, surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian Province of British Columbia. However, the network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland and Arkansas The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word "Arkansas" itself is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word "akakaze" meaning "land, more than 20 percent of children under 5 are allegedly at risk of going hungry.The study was paid by ConAgra Foods, a large food company.^[27]

Food security

Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year 2002, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households were food insecure at least some time during that year. The prevalence of food insecurity rose from 10.7% in 2001 to 11.1% in 2002, and the prevalence of food insecurity with hunger rose from 3.3% to 3.5%.^[28]

Factors in poverty

There are numerous factors related to poverty in the United States.

• Tax levels Cross-country data shows an inverse correlation between tax levels as a share of GDP and child poverty.^[29] This conclusion is based on a comparison of high tax Scandinavian countries with the U.S. The poverty rate, however, is low in some low tax countries such as Switzerland. A comparison of poverty rates between states reveals that some low tax states have low poverty rates. For example, New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate of any state in the U. S., but has very low taxes (46th among all states).
• Income is directly related to educational levels. In 2007, the median earnings of individuals with less than a 9th grade education was $16,615 while high school graduates earned $31,337, holders of bachelor’s degree earned $56,826, and individuals with professional degrees earned $100,000.^[30]
• In many cases poverty is caused by job loss. In 2007, the poverty rate was 21.5% for individuals who were unemployed, but only 2.5% for individuals who were employed full time. ^[31]
• In 1991, 8.3% of children in two-parent families were likely to live in poverty; 19.6% of children lived with father in single parent family; and 47.1% in single parent family headed by mother.^[32]
• Income levels vary along racial/ethnic lines: 21% of all children in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language live in poverty, about 46% of African American Predominantly Protestant ; some Roman Catholics. Minorities practice Islam and other religions children and 40% of Latino Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain. The group encompasses distinct sub-groups by national origin and race, with ancestries from all continents represented. Some members of the community prefer Hispanic and others Latino, the latter being more common in the western United children live in poverty.^[33] What is unclear is why so many minorities live in poverty. It is noted, however, that 70% of black children are born to single mothers. In 2007 only 11% of black women aged 30-44 without a high school diploma had a working spouse.^[34] The poverty rate for native born and naturalized whites is identical (9.6%). On the other hand, the poverty rate for naturalized blacks is 11.8% compared to 25.1% for native born blacks suggesting race alone does not explain income disparity. Not all minorities have low incomes. Not only do Asian families have higher average incomes than blacks and Hispanics, they have higher average incomes than white families. For example, the 2005 median income of Asian families was $68,957 compared to the median income of white families of $59,124. Mean income of Asian families was $88,372 compared to the mean income of white families of $76,327. (Source: U. S. Census, Family Income Tables, http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/faminc/toc.htm.) Asians, however, report that they face discrimination more frequently than blacks. Specifically, 31% of Asians reported employment discrimination compared to 26% of blacks in 2005. (Source: Amy Joyce, “The Bias Breakdown,” The Washington Post, December 9, 2005, p. D01 citing Gallop Poll data.)
• The conservative 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.^[35]

Much of the debate about poverty focuses on statistical measures of poverty and the clash between advocates and opponents of welfare programs and government regulation of the free market. Since measures can be either absolute or relative, it is possible that advocates for the different sides of this debate are basing their arguments on different ways of measuring poverty. It is often claimed that poverty is understated, yet there are some who also believe it is overstated; thus the accuracy of the current poverty threshold guidelines is subject to debate and considerable concern.

In 2007, 46% of poor households in the US owned their own homes, 30% had two or more cars, and 63% received cable or satellite TV.^[36].

Concerns regarding accuracy

In recent years, there have been a number of concerns raised about the official U.S. poverty measure. In 1995, the National Research Council's Committee on National Statistics convened a panel on measuring poverty. The findings of the panel were that "the official poverty measure in the United States is flawed and does not adequately inform policy-makers or the public about who is poor and who is not poor."

The panel was chaired by Robert Michael, former Dean of the Harris School of the University of Chicago. According to Michael, the official U.S. poverty measure "has not kept pace with far-reaching changes in society and the economy." The panel proposed a model based on disposable income:

Understating poverty

Many sociologists and government officials have argued that poverty in the United States is understated, meaning that there are more households living in actual poverty than there are households below the poverty threshold.^[38] A recent NPR report states that as much as 30% of Americans have trouble making ends meet and other advocates have made supporting claims that the rate of actual poverty in the US is far higher than that calculated by using the poverty threshold.^[38] While the poverty threshold is updated for inflation every year, the basket of goods used to determine what constitutes being deprived of a socially acceptable miniumum standard of living has not been updated since 1955. As a result, the current poverty line only takes goods into account that were common more than 50 years ago, updating their cost using the Consumer Price Index. Mollie Orshansky, who devised the original goods basket and methodology to measure poverty, used by the U.S. government, in 1963-65, updated the goods basket in 2000, finding that the actual poverty threshold, i.e. the point where a person is excluded from the nation's prevailing consumption patterns, is at roughly 170% of the official poverty threshold.^[3] According to John Schwarzt, a political scientist at the University of Arizona:

The issue of understating poverty is especially pressing in states with both a high cost of living and a high poverty rate such as California where the median home price in May 2006 was determined to be $564,430.^[39] With half of all homes being priced above the half million dollar mark and prices in urban areas such as San Francisco, San Jose or Los Angeles being higher than the state average, it is almost impossible for not just the poor but also lower middle class worker to afford decent housing^{[citation needed]}, and no possibility of home ownership. In the Monterey area, where the low-pay industry of agriculture is the largest sector in the economy and the majority of the population lacks a college education the median home price was determined to be $723,790, requiring an upper middle class income which only roughly 20% of all households in the county boast.^[39][40] Such fluctuations in local markets are however not considered in the Federal poverty threshold and thus leave many who live in poverty-like conditions out of the total number of households classified as poor.

Overstating poverty

The federal poverty line also excludes income other than cash income, especially welfare benefits. Thus, if food stamps and public housing were successfully raising the standard of living for poverty stricken individuals, then the poverty line figures would not shift since they do not consider the income equivalents of such entitlements.^[41]

A 1993 study of low income single mothers titled Making Ends Meet, by Kathryn Edin, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that the mothers spent more than their reported incomes because they could not "make ends meet" without such expenditures. According to Edin, they made up the difference through contributions from family members, absent boyfriends, off-the-book jobs, and church charity.

According to Edin: "No one avoided the unnecessary expenditures, such as the occasional trip to the Dairy Queen, or a pair of stylish new sneakers for the son who might otherwise sell drugs to get them, or the Cable TV subscription for the kids home alone and you are afraid they will be out on the street if they are not watching TV."^[42]

Moreover, Swedish right-wing think tank Timbro points out that lower-income households in the U.S. tend to own more appliances and larger houses than many middle-income Western Europeans.^[43]

Fighting poverty

There have been many governmental and nongovernmental efforts to reduce poverty and its effects. These range in scope from neighborhood efforts to campaigns with a national focus. They target specific groups affected by poverty such as children, people who are autistic, immigrants, or people who are homeless. Efforts to alleviate poverty use a disparate set of methods, such as advocacy, education, social work, legislation, direct service or charity, and community organizing.

Recent debates have centered on the need for policies that focus on both "income poverty" and "asset poverty." Advocates for the approach argue that traditional governmental poverty policies focus solely on supplementing the income of the poor, through programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Food Stamps. These programs do little, if anything, to help the poor build assets and begin to lift themselves out of poverty. Some have proposed creating a government matched savings plan (similar to the private 401K) system to provide a savings incentive to poor and lower-income individuals and families.

Negative income tax

From 1968 to 1979 a massive social experiment was undertaken in the U.S. : The Negative Income Tax Experiments of the 1970s in the USA The four experiments were in:

1. Urban areas in New Jersey and Pennsylvania from 1968-1972 (1300 families).
2. Rural areas in Iowa and North Carolina from 1969-1973 (800 families).
3. Gary, Indiana from 1971-1974 (1800 families).
4. Seattle and Denver, from 1970-1978 (4800 families).

Campaign to Reduce Poverty in the United States

Catholic Charities USA released the : "Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America" based on its paper Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good in January 2007.

From Poverty to Prosperity

In April 2007 The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, released a report : "From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half". It recommended 12 steps to cut poverty in half by 2017, including raising the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and promoting unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.

Marriage

Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau in a 2005 editorial, economist Walter E. Williams of George Mason University wrote that the poverty rate among single-parent black families was 39.5%, while it was only 9.9% among married-couple black families. Among white families, the comparable rates were 26.4% and 6%.^[44]

See also

• Income in the United States
• Income inequality in the United States
• Lowest-income counties in the United States
• Homelessness in the United States
• Federal assistance in the United States

Other:

• Human Poverty Index
• Mississippi Teacher Corps
• Basic Income
• Negative Income Tax
• Tipping Point Community
• Redistributive change
• De-industrialization crisis
• The Other America
• Two Americas

International:

• Poverty by country
• International Ranking of Household Income
• List of Average Wages per Country

References

1. ^ Zweig, Michael (2004) What's Class Got to do With It, American Society in the Twenty-first Century. ILR Press. ISBN 978-0801488993
2. ^ Hacker, J. S. (2006). The great risk shift: The new insecurity and the decline of the American dream. New York: Oxford University Press (USA).
3. ^ ^{a b} Schwartz, J. E. (2005). Freedom reclaimed: Rediscovering the American vision. Baltimore: G-University Press.
4. ^ Bradley, D., Huber, E., Moller, S., Nielson, F. & Stephens, J. D. (2003). Determinants of relative poverty in advanced capitalist democracies. American Sociological Review, 68(3), 22-51.
5. ^ Notten, Geranda and Neubourg, Chris de (2007): Poverty in Europe and the USA: Exchanging official measurement methods. Table 3, pg.38
6. ^ Kenworthy, L. (1999). Do social-welfare policies reduce poverty? A cross-national assessment. Social Forces, 77(3), 1119-1139.
7. ^ Savage, Sarah, Child Poverty High in Rural America, http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/FS_RuralChildPoverty_08.pdf, retrieved 2008-08-26
8. ^ Child Poverty High in Rural America Newswise, Retrieved on August 26, 2008.
9. ^ "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008". U.S. Census Bureau. September 2009. http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf.
10. ^ Fisher, G.M. (2003) The Development of the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds. Accessed: 2003-12-27
11. ^ ^{a b} Poverty Definition U.S. Census Bureau. Accessed: 2003-12-27.
12. ^ "www.hhs.gov". The 2009 HHS Poverty Guidelines. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml. Retrieved June 23 2009.
13. ^ NOTE: Data in paragraph do not agree with official U.S. Census data, which show poverty rate for families rising from 8.7% in 2000 to 10.2% in 2004, then declining slightly to 9.8% in 2007. Note#2: The Poverty Threshold is (correct me if I'm wrong on any point) NEVER measured according to the HHS Poverty Guidelines. The HHS Poverty Guidelines are calculated from the Poverty Thresholds, also known as "the federal official poverty line" in accordance with Title 42 Sec. 9902 (2) of The Federal Code. The thresholds are provided by The Office of Management and Budget as the starting point which are taken from years prior to the current Threshold figures and are multiplied by a percentage change in the CPI (Consumer Price Index) measured from the earlier Thresholds' year of publication to the present. The average difference between the thresholds and this result is then added back to the original Threshold amounts to produce the HHS Poverty Guideline Table as displayed below. See here for details: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09computations.shtml http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/faq.shtml#differences http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode42/usc_sec_42_00009902----000-.html The Poverty Threshold Table for 2008: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh08.html
14. ^ Census Bureau:Poverty: 2007 and 2008 American Community Surveys
15. ^ BPS:Miskin
16. ^ US Population Clock
17. ^ http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1276#inter1 INSEE, Government of France, "Bilan démographique 2009"]
18. ^ ^{a b} Michael Foerster/Marco Mira d'Ercole, "Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s", OECD Social, employment and migration working papers No. 22, Paris 2005, page 22, figure 6.
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey. People in Families by Family Structure, Age, and Sex, Iterated by Income-to-Poverty Ratio and Race: 2007: Below 100% of Poverty -- All Races.
20. ^ ^{a b} U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey. People in Families by Family Structure, Age, and Sex, Iterated by Income-to-Poverty Ratio and Race: 2007: Below 100% of Poverty -- White Alone.
21. ^ ^{a b} http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/pov/new03_100_06.htm
22. ^ ^{a b c} http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/pov/new02_100_09.htm
23. ^ http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/pov/new01_100_03.htm
24. ^ http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/pov/new01_100_09.htm
25. ^ http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty08/pov08hi.html
26. ^ http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/47/2/41528678.pdf
27. ^ "3.5M Kids Under 5 On Verge Of Going Hungry Study: 11 Percent Of U.S. Households Lack Food For Healthy Lifestyle" ("SHTML). Health. CBS NEWS. 2009-05-07. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/07/health/main4998190.shtml. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
28. ^ Household Food Security in the United States, 2002 - United States Department of Agriculture
29. ^ "The Social Benefits and Economic Costs of Taxation" (PDF). http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/National_Office_Pubs/2006/Benefits_and_Costs_of_Taxation.pdf. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
30. ^ "U. S. Census: Income, Expenditures, Poverty and Wealth" (PDF). http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/10statab/income.pdf. Retrieved 2010-3-20.
31. ^ "U. S. Census: Income, Expenditures, Poverty and Wealth" (PDF). http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/10statab/income.pdf. Retrieved 2010-3-20.
32. ^ [1]
33. ^ Center for the Future of Children, The Future of Children. Vol. 7, No 2, 1997.
34. ^ "Sex and the single black woman". The Economist. April 8, 2010.
35. ^ "Heritage Foundation's views of immigration and poverty". http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/SR9.cfm#_ftn2. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
36. ^ "EU versus USA" (PDF). http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
37. ^ Harms, W. (1995) Poverty definition flawed, more accurate measure needed The University of Chicago Chronicle, 14:17.
38. ^ ^{a b} Adams, J.Q.; Pearlie Strother-Adams (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. ISBN 0-7872-8145-X.
39. ^ ^{a b} "California median home price". http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060627/20060627005927.html?.v=1. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
40. ^ "Monterey County income distribution". http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=05000US06053&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP32&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
41. ^ Poor Poverty Yardsticks by Rea Hederman, Heritage Foundation, Washington Post. September 7, 2006. Accessed: 2007-02-18
42. ^ However many mothers skipped meals or did odd jobs to cover those expenses. According to Edin, "most welfare-reliant mothers food and shelter alone cost almost as much as these mothers received from the government. For more than one-third, food and housing costs exceeded their cash benefits, leaving no extra money for uncovered medical care, clothing, and other household expenses."Devising New Math to Define Poverty by Louis Uchitelle, New York Times. 1999-10-18. Accessed: 2006-06-16
43. ^ "E.U. vs U.S.A, Timbro" (PDF). http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
44. ^ Ammunition for poverty pimps Walter E. Williams, October 27, 2005

Further reading

• Caudill, Harry (1962). Night Comes to the Cumberlands. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-13212-8.
• Harrington, Michael (1962). The Other America. Macmillan. ISBN 0-684-82678-X.
• Sarnoff, Susan (2003). "Central Appalachia – Still the Other America". Journal of Poverty (The Haworth Press) Volume 7 (1 & 2): 123–139. doi:10.1300/J134v07n01_06. http://www.journalofpoverty.org/JOPABS/JPOABS21.HTM.

External links

• U.S. Census Bureau Poverty Definition
• U.S. Census Bureau Poverty in the United States
• Why Poverty Doesn't Rate, American Enterprise Institute
• Social Solutions to Poverty: America's Struggle to Build a Just Society. Scott Myers-Lipton, (2006).
• Child Poverty and Tax: a simple graph of child disposible income disparity in OECD countries against tax burdens.
• F.H.C. Ministries Charity is not Reform!
• From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half, The Center for American Progress, April 2007.
• Explanation of poverty definition by economist Ellen Frank in Dollars & Sense magazine, January/February 2006
• "Deciding Who's Poor" by economist Barbara Bergmann in Dollars & Sense magazine, March/April 2000
• 37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty
• David Walls, Models of Poverty and Planned Change
• U.S. Government Does Relatively Little to Lessen Child Poverty Rates
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Poverty Guidelines, Research, and Measurement
• Cities Tolerate Homeless Camps by Jennifer Levitz, The Wall Street Journal, August 11 2009
• The Forgotten Americans PBS series by Hector Galan about colonias.
• Americans living in Third World conditions This article discusses the living conditions of people inhabiting colonias (with pictures).

Categories: Poverty in the United States | Wealth in the United States | Health in the United States

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