How do you define poverty in the U.S.?

[Cicero]

After all, compared with the rest of the world, even the poor in our country have things pretty good. There are very few (if any) that I know of dying from lack of clean drinking water, or having no food at all.

So, any definition will have to be one that only applies internally to the U.S., at least for the purpose of this question. What kind of data would you use to define poverty?

Should it be solely defined as what income you make?

Should you include whatever wealth you have accumulated?

Would public services be used to offset any lacks in income or wealth in the final figure?

Just something to think about.

Later,

[Cobalt Violet]

1. there are poor people in this country dying from...

Lack of health care. Working poor. Making too much for government help, too little to be able to afford insurance.

[liontamer]

2. the poor in this country

can be characterized largely by their lack of access to healthcare and quality education.

[liontamer]

3. the obvious answer

People who lack housing and food

[rastignac5]

4. We certainly can't compare US poverty to that of third world countries

I think we should boil down the issues of poverty to access to healthcare and a quality education, including college or technical school. We're rich enough as a country to make these two things available to everybody. And that's where our responsibility should end.

[dumpster_baby]

5. and a minimum housing stipend for any poor person

who knows, that poor person may someday be you.
If little countries like Denmark and Sweden and Netherlands and Belgium can do it, why not THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!111???????????(((flourish of trumpets)))

[tandot]

6. What dimwit would compare the US poverty to third world nations?

How about comparing ourselves to comparable industrialized nations?

http://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=5591


Poverty in the United States and Other Western Countries
(May 2002) It is difficult to compare poverty levels in different countries. Countries not only have different currencies, they have different family income levels, consumption patterns, prices for goods and services (which affect purchasing power), spending patterns, and family and demographic characteristics. Different countries also adopt very different criteria for setting absolute income thresholds that define poverty. As a result, most cross-national studies use relative measures of poverty as a basis for comparison.

A recent study by Timothy Smeeding, Lee Rainwater, and Gary Burtless showed striking differences in western countries' rates of relative poverty, which they defined as 50 percent of the median adjusted disposable personal income (ADIN) for persons (adjusted for family size). They also measured deep poverty, defined as 40 percent of the median ADIN. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study, the researchers showed that the United States has the highest relative poverty (and deep poverty) rates among those countries observed (see figure).





I just saw a similar discussion on freerepublic, with people over there saying we don't have poverty here in the US.

[Frodo]

7. That table doesn't measure poverty

It measures income stratification. If the median income in the US were twice that of Spain, then there could be people listed as "deep poverty" HERE who make almost the median income THERE. This measurement actually punishes the more successful countries. The poorest countries in the world would have almost ZERO "poverty" by this measure.

[bemildred]

8. The lack of the basic goods of life.

Food, clothing, shelter, basic health care, educational opportunity.
After that one may consider access to leisure and entertainment.
Currencies fluctuate, hence are not a good measure. Access to the
basic goods of life can be compared. There are plenty of Americans
who are not sure about where they will sleep tonight and where their
next meal is coming from, and plenty who have no idea what they will
do if they have a medical crisis. Canada has a lower infant mortality
rate than we do, so does Cuba.