Forty Years is Enough

Despite advances in the field, the mechanics of drawing the national poverty line have not been significantly altered for forty years. Each September the Census Bureau releases its official calculation of the national poverty line and enumeration of the poor, intended to reflect the extent of economic hardship in the United States. The once-useful metric has, unfortunately, not worn well. Today the official poverty measure provides an incomplete and inaccurate representation of the poor.

This panel featured two pioneers of the field, whose work highlights alternative measures of economic hardship that focus on assets, self reliance, and social protection.

Participants

• Joan Kuriansky
  Executive Director, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW)


• Carl Rist
  Program Director, Corporation for Enterprise Development