in collaboration with Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity

Adjust the numerical indices of poverty

File under: Census data, other

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From: Robert R., Wynnewood, PA

How do we pull the one in seven Americans living in poverty out? These conclusions are based on self-reported Census data, so they have to be discounted to account for the ever-present incentives to understate income. I do not doubt that there were systematic efforts to under-report income that were set in motion in many states, efforts born and bred in the back offices of unprincipled, "anything goes" governors the likes of Edward Rendell and Rod Blagojevich, well before the actual Census even occurred. So the answer (if not the solution) is to adjust the numerical indices of poverty. That in itself might eliminate 25 percent of the perceived problem. Spoken like a true economist!

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