Reply to Income of $22,000 a year is considered the poverty line for a family of four- WTH?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Called the poverty line for a reason.  If you are at that point you are in actual poverty.  Not just having trouble making ends meet. [/quote]While I get your point here, I'm a bit dismayed at the kneejerk response.  This is supposed to help us figure out how many people are struggling in the United States but it no longer measures poverty the way it used to because the costs of things we need to live have changed. There is a legitimate case that it should be higher, because obviously more people are struggling to survive at these income levels than used to be the case.  Even if you don't care about whether people are poor, we ought to care that we have consistent measures - and this measure is not consistent over time.

From a site which explores this problem:
http://www.tolerance.org/activity/calculating-poverty-line
[quote]In 2012, the federal government set the poverty line for a family of four at $23,050. [b]The figure is based on food costs [/b]— the government identifies how much it should cost to feed a family of four for one year and then multiplies that number by three. [b]The formula has been used for decades.
[/b]
What it fails to capture is this: [b]In today's America, food expenses represent just one-fifth of the average household budget, not a third. [/b]Other costs — housing, health care, childcare and transportation — typically eat up larger portions of a family's budget. [/quote][/quote]

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