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Originally Posted by irateplatypus
Here is a great link describing the poverty levels since 1959.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov1.html
you can see the figures for families of all numbers in the table... but here is an interesting fact. for a couple living 1983, the poverty line was at $7,938. this same measure has been bumped up to $14,680 in the year 2003.
that's nearly TWICE what it was just 20 years ago. surely this must outpace inflation (does it?) and the CPI. medicare, welfare and unemployment benefits have risen since then... is it not possible that the standard for poverty has improved since 1983? |
The amounts are roughly the same ($14667.24 in the year 2003 has the same "purchase power" as $7938 in the year 1983.)
I pulled that figure from here:
http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/
Benefits have not increased, they have
decreased and the amount of time one can receive them is now capped at 5 years. The standard for poverty has worsened over time.