INTRODUCTION In January of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” (Bureau 2014). The declaration sparked interest in learning more about those in poverty and what was considered poverty in the United States. Mollie Orshansky became a huge contributor in creating the poverty threshold. In 1963-1964, Orshansky used information from the time she worked at the U.S Department of Agriculture. Orshnasky used the “economy food plan”, the cheapest of four food plans and found that families of three or more spent about one-third of their net income money in 1955. Taking these findings into account, she calculated the poverty thresholds for various size families and amount of children in those families by multiplying the costs
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The absolute measure of poverty was developed in the 1960’s for a low food plan diet that was placed in assuming that the homemaker of the family would have the time to plan and prepare “nutritious, palatable meals” on a minimal budget (Garner and Short 2010). Such diets are outdated for 21st century living; thus, implementing a new measure could account for a new budget of the 21st century. Additionally, another measure that the OPM does not consider is the increasing labor force that forces many families to pay for expensive child care. Robert Micheal argues in Measuring poverty: a new approach, the OPM does not the measure the difference of needs between the needs of families of parents who do or do not work outside the home (1995). Moreover, the OPM thresholds are the same throughout the United States, despite the various costs of living in different cities and towns (Micheal …show more content…
According Measuring Poverty: A New Approach, a new poverty measure should include a budget for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and another small amount for other needs (1995). This is reasonable base for a new relative measure. Other references that have become more expensive since the 1960’s such as the difference costs of living in areas across the country, child care expenses, work expenses, and health care cost, should be considered in a new measure as well. Although it has been argued that there should be a greater focus on the government preventing poverty by economic policies like minimum wage, it is also important that the government can accurately know who is in poverty, and assist based off accurate
The absolute measure of poverty was developed in the 1960’s for a low food plan diet that was placed in assuming that the homemaker of the family would have the time to plan and prepare “nutritious, palatable meals” on a minimal budget (Garner and Short 2010). Such diets are outdated for 21st century living; thus, implementing a new measure could account for a new budget of the 21st century. Additionally, another measure that the OPM does not consider is the increasing labor force that forces many families to pay for expensive child care. Robert Micheal argues in Measuring poverty: a new approach, the OPM does not the measure the difference of needs between the needs of families of parents who do or do not work outside the home (1995). Moreover, the OPM thresholds are the same throughout the United States, despite the various costs of living in different cities and towns (Micheal …show more content…
According Measuring Poverty: A New Approach, a new poverty measure should include a budget for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and another small amount for other needs (1995). This is reasonable base for a new relative measure. Other references that have become more expensive since the 1960’s such as the difference costs of living in areas across the country, child care expenses, work expenses, and health care cost, should be considered in a new measure as well. Although it has been argued that there should be a greater focus on the government preventing poverty by economic policies like minimum wage, it is also important that the government can accurately know who is in poverty, and assist based off accurate