Our official national lie – Outdated formula underreports poverty in US families

[woo me with science]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-08-06/news/bs-md-rodricks-0807-20120806_1_american-poverty-poverty-threshold-sufficiency

Our official national lie – Americans in poverty
An outdated formula makes the U.S. family portrait brighter than it really is
August 06, 2012|Dan Rodricks

It's our official national lie — the number of Americans we consider poor...Even as the U.S. Census Bureau prepares to report the highest level of poverty in 50 years, we are lying to ourselves about the number of Americans who can't make ends meet without government help or charity.
....
The author of the report is Diana Pearce, a social work professor at the University of Washington. She developed the self-sufficiency standards in the 1990s and has conducted such surveys in 37 states. It appears to be exhaustive work that factors in all kinds of real costs — food, transportation, child care, health care, housing — and geographic variables.....Pearce's standard calculates an ideal: "How much income a family of a certain composition in a given place needs to adequately meet their basic needs — without public or private assistance."

Even allowing for "advocacy bias," Pearce's numbers are so far from the official definition of poverty that anyone capable of real-world logic would see the lack of honesty in the government's calculations. Her model seems to match its boast as "a more comprehensive measure of income adequacy than the Federal Poverty Level."

Imagine if "income adequacy for self-sufficiency" were to be the new standard. Clearly, the bottom of our society would appear much larger than it does now...

(more at link, including discussion of revised formulas...)

[kenny blankenship]

1. Just add it to the pile with the inflation numbers, body counts and unemployment stats

My government lies. I'm so shocked.

[woo me with science]

3. Well said.

Have we had enough of this yet, America?

[leftstreet]

5. +1

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt

[ananda]

4. I am not surprised.

Our collective invisibilation of poverty
is also our national disgrace.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Add to that the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed

the execution of a man with an IQ of 61 yesterday in Texas.

I would call that a disgrace to the human race.

[Trillo]

6. Thank you

It appears the purpose of honor codes such as "I will never lie cheat or steal, and discourage others from such actions", codes such as that given to students at military academies, are 'perhaps' designed to only allow those at the top of hierarchies to lie. All others must be honest. If you're the top liar, do you want your 'underlings' to lie to you"?

Hypocrisy is the basis of our existence, it seems.

[Hydra]

8. Hmmm...sounds about right

I'm always told I "make too much&quot 17kish on a good year) when I apply for job training or any other kind of help since I have a disabled dependent(but not one I can claim for EIC).

It would be nice if we were taking this issue seriously, but I guess we won't until all of us are down at the bottom fighting over whatever is left.

[woo me with science]

9. +1000000 What is being done to Americans

is a national emergency far greater than 9/11.

Yes, it would be nice if our government were taking this seriously. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have the financial prerequisites to be the ones they represent anymore.

The theft will continue for exactly as long as Americans tolerate it.

[woo me with science]

10. Kick