, Columnist
America Is Poorer Than It Thinks
Statistics don’t quite capture the extent of U.S. poverty. A new measure could change that.
Anxiety about hunger is debilitating, too.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
What does it mean to be poor? Currently there are two basic ways to define poverty. To get a better measure of who needs help — and a better sense of how to provide it — society needs a third definition.
The first definition is absolute poverty — essentially, material destitution. Human beings need food, water and shelter, and if we can’t afford these things, life is pretty miserable. In the U.S., the federal government has poverty guidelines that are based on food consumption: If you make less than about three times the minimum amount people need to spend on food each year, you’re poor.