Aiming at Half of the Target: An Argument to Replace Poverty Thresholds With Self-Sufficiency, or “Living Wage” Standards

Historical Shadows: The Links between Sundown Towns and Contemporary Black–White Inequality

“…Poverty is a useful outcome because it represents the culmination of disadvantage across educational, political, and economic spheres. However, the official poverty threshold has been criticized for a wide range of reasons, most centrally because it does not accurately reflect the experience of poverty and is generally considered an underestimate (see, e.g., Rossi and Curtis 2013). Despite its limitations, the official poverty threshold provides sound insight into black-white inequality especially since I focus on disparities within a county, which helps account for how differences in the cost of living might affect this estimate of poverty.…”

Where Are We in the Global Poverty Measurement? The Human Minimum Model as a Veritable Option

“…The lack of explicit treatment of the psychological dimension is indeed a telling one on different poverty measures since 1969, when the US government launched the country’s first official poverty threshold for various family sizes. Michele Rossi and Karen Curtis (2013: 112–113) explain that the 1969 US threshold was adopted from the calculations of social security researcher Mollie Orshansky, whose figures presented levels of income inadequacy and showed how much, on average, was too little. This threshold continues to be recalculated every year, but Rossi and Curtis (2013: 113) indicate that it is grossly inadequate, because it undercounts those living in poverty and fails to capture the effect of poverty alleviation policies.…”

“…Michele Rossi and Karen Curtis (2013: 112–113) explain that the 1969 US threshold was adopted from the calculations of social security researcher Mollie Orshansky, whose figures presented levels of income inadequacy and showed how much, on average, was too little. This threshold continues to be recalculated every year, but Rossi and Curtis (2013: 113) indicate that it is grossly inadequate, because it undercounts those living in poverty and fails to capture the effect of poverty alleviation policies. Down the years, criticisms for the US threshold mounted, culminating in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendation of changes to the official national poverty measure in 1995, which brought in a number of improvements and specifics relating to food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc.…”

The Poor and Social Policy

“…Also important in shaping our current system are more conservative periods like the 1980s and 1990s that looked to cut or reduce dependency on government programs (Stricker 2000). A notable example is the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which redesigned the Aid to Families with Dependent Children to the current Temporary Aid to Needy Families in an attempt to reduce dependence on governmental programs (Rossi and Curtis 2013). Key changes included expansion of welfare-to-work programs, ending federal welfare entitlements, and establishing time limits on welfare benefits (Reese 2007;Parisi et al 2005).…”

“…Referred to as the poverty threshold, this circumscribed definition has limited one's understanding of what it really means to live in poverty and is a relative measure in that compares one family to the next (Aber et al 2012;Branham 2011). An additional limitation is its lack of flexibility, as it would be difficult to argue that a family of four making an additional $100 per year would not also be living in poverty (Rossi and Curtis 2013). In 1979, Peter Townsend developed a more comprehensive often-quoted definition of poverty that is still relevant today that states:…”