http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060403fa_
fact Measuring poverty: in the US, the poverty line for the last 40 years has been set at three times a (very minimal) food budget. This approach has many obvious problems, but, according to this piece, it’s difficult to say even whether it underestimates or overestimates the poverty rate—“Such considerations suggest that the official measures understate the extent of poverty, but the opposite argument can also be made.” (Though it almost certainly underestimates the problem in big cities, where accommodation takes up a much larger proportion of the household budget than it used to.) 09:18
Gulfstream
Entry Posted April 2, 2006
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The Newshoggers (cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com):
… deeper in debt to fund more and more education. We are being priced out of asset accumulation and the ability to save for the future as the social expectation of being a 'respectable' and thus a hire-able member of society has become more expensive.Adam Smithnoted this tendency of escalating relative competition two hundred years ago: By necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but what ever the customs of the country renders it indecent …
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