[PEN-L:6754] Re: Poverty query

["Max B. Sawicky" <maxsaw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bill Moore wrote:
>
> I don't know whether USDHHS, et al, still use the methodology; but at one
> time the estimation of the "official poverty line" was calculated by first
> estimating the cost of a subsistence food budget, then multiplying it by
>
> I don't recall if there was any difference in the allocations between the
> adults and the children, but if not, that would then be $1,203 per
> person, or roughly $100 per month.  (That could probably be verified
> empirically by doing a survey of grad students on assistantships.  8<)
>
> If anyone has any more recent information on this subject, I, too, would
> appreciate a copy or seeing it posted here...

The original method is still in official use, though there may be some
refinements with respect to family structure.  The problem with
modernizing
it is that any change is political dynamite.  A new measure that found
more
or less poverty would have automatic ramifications for government
programs,
and I don't have to tell you that our enlightened leaders could not be
expected to make any appropriate adjustments to offset any such effects
if they cost any extra dough.

I mentioned in another message that Ruggles is the latest and greatest
Washington treatment of this subject, though there is doubtless more
in academia.  I was recently looking through papers coming out of the
Luxembourg Income Study (Syracuse) and the amount of complexity that
has grown around measurement of poverty and income distribution is
enough to drive almost anyone away.

In the we have no shame department,
there is also a reactionary literature on this, particularly from
Robert Rector at Heritage Foundation, which proposes to lower the
money thresholds for poverty (thereby reducing the size of the
population counted as poor) on the grounds that the relative price
of food has decreased since the origination of the methodology
(which was in 1956 I believe).  This is becoming less of a priority
for the right (it was all the rage ten years ago), probably because
Federal public assistance programs are withering on the vine, so to
speak.

Regards to 'B-T-C'.  I miss Opus myself.

MS

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Max B. Sawicky			maxsaw@xxxxxxxxx
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