Washington University in St. Louis professor Mark Rank recently reminded New York Times readers. "Contrary to popular belief," he wrote over the weekend, "the percentage of the population that directly encounters poverty is exceedingly high."
Between the ages of 25 and 60, Rank has found, almost 40 percent of Americans will live at least one year below the poverty line.
A newer, unofficial method that figures in the value of many government benefits, the cost of living in different cities, and health-care costs found almost 50 million people in the U.S. are poor using the supplemental measure, compared to the 47 million using the official measure. 3 million more poor.
The official poverty line is the same “whether you live in New York City or Kansas,” said Marybeth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. “This looks at what housing actually costs where you live.” Using the alternative measure, California had the highest poverty in the country between 2010 and 2012 – 23.8% -- followed by the District of Columbia and Nevada.
“Unemployment is still huge. We’ve cut housing. We’ve cut Head Start. We’ve cut nutrition programs,” said Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families. “Now it's food stamps.... That'll show up in these numbers next year."
Between the ages of 25 and 60, Rank has found, almost 40 percent of Americans will live at least one year below the poverty line.
A newer, unofficial method that figures in the value of many government benefits, the cost of living in different cities, and health-care costs found almost 50 million people in the U.S. are poor using the supplemental measure, compared to the 47 million using the official measure. 3 million more poor.
The official poverty line is the same “whether you live in New York City or Kansas,” said Marybeth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. “This looks at what housing actually costs where you live.” Using the alternative measure, California had the highest poverty in the country between 2010 and 2012 – 23.8% -- followed by the District of Columbia and Nevada.
“Unemployment is still huge. We’ve cut housing. We’ve cut Head Start. We’ve cut nutrition programs,” said Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families. “Now it's food stamps.... That'll show up in these numbers next year."
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