Poverty in United States

Introduction

Poverty is deprivation of material essentials such as food, shelter, drinking water, and clothing. It is also associated with the lack of education, freedom, and dignity. The uneven distribution of poverty at various scales, from the global to the household, via the national, regional, and local, suggests the importance of geographic factors in explaining its prevalence and understanding its nature.

Discussion

Poverty, however, is not a phenomenon unique to the developing world. According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate in the United States rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, the highest level since 1997, and a significant increase from 12.5 percent in 2007. This translates to 40 million people living below the poverty line, which is defined as an income of $22,205 for a family of four. The benchmark for ascertaining poverty levels is currently set at three times the annual cost of groceries. This does not take into account the rising medical, transportation, child care, and housing expenses or geographical variations in living costs. Neither does it consider noncash aid.

During the recession of 2008-09, the poor got poorer and the middle class lost ground. The poverty rate among Americans aged 65 years and older is nearly twice as high (18.6 percent) as the traditional 10 percent. Alarmingly, for the first time in history, 1.2 million more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than in the cities. The Center for American Progress further estimates that approximately 17 percent of children in the United States live in or near poverty, and the annual cost to the country's economy of children growing up poor, resulting in their eventual lower productivity and earnings and higher crime rates and health costs, is over half a trillion dollars. (Kodras, 78)

The official U.S. fixed poverty line was developed in the early 1960s by the Social Security Administration (SSA). A poverty line was needed in the context of the War on Poverty. The SSA proposed a line set at 3 times the cost of the Department of Agriculture's Economy Food Plan. It was observed that the typical American family spent about one third of its budget on food, and it was inferred that a family that had to spend more would lack the means to buy the other necessities of life.

Poverty Measures

There is disagreement on how best to measure poverty. The first distinction exists between absolute and relative measures. Absolute measures identify a minimum level of income or consumption below which individuals or households are considered poor. For example, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as less than $1 per day and moderate poverty as less than $2 per day, with purchasing power parity adjustments allowing comparisons between countries. Because standards of living vary dramatically across places, most countries have established their own absolute poverty lines. In the United States, the poverty threshold was established in 1965 based on the cost of food, taking into account household size and composition but making no adjustment for regional differences in cost of living. The threshold is adjusted annually for inflation. For example, in 2007, the federal poverty threshold for a family of three, with one adult and two children ...