[PEN-L:5200] Re: measuring poverty

[M Schettino <mschetti@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Income-Expenditure Survey in Mexico has the same feature: the
bottom three deciles are on a permanent deficit. Nevertheless, poverty
is far above this third of population.

Macario

On Tue, 23 May 1995, Doug Henwood wrote:

> At 10:52 AM 5/23/95, Jim Devine wrote:
>
> >The only thing I've seen that's like this is Martin Bronfenbrenner's
> >calculation of the "Wolf Point" in his INCOME DISTRIBUTION THEORY.
> >It's the point where on a time-series plotting of consumption
> >relative to disposable income, consumption equals disp. inc.
> >This is where the "wolf is at the door": below it, one has
> >to get into greater debt or sell assets to maintain consump-
> >tion. Of course, if one does that, one's status falls.
>
> According to unpublished data from the BLS's Consumer Expenditure Survey,
> the bottom three quintiles of the income distribution spend more than their
> after-tax income. Now of course these averages hide surplus units lurking
> in there, and the CES income numbers are notoriously spongy, but there's a
> definition of poverty for you - when you spend 200% of your income. The
> wolf gets inside the door and sits down at the kitchen table.
>
> Doug
>
> --
>
> Doug Henwood
> [dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx]
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