The Poverty Threshold

The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure, which was developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration in the 1960s. Updated each year by the Census Bureau, the thresholds are used mainly for statistical purposes–for example, preparing the estimates of the number of Americans in poverty for each year's poverty report. The measure was devised to define and quantify poverty in America, and thereby provide a yardstick for progress or regress in antipoverty efforts, and in that sense has served the nation well.

The 1960s "War on Poverty" was real. It was a serious attempt by the USA government to bring poverty to a near end. This is Mollie. She was an economist. Her responsibility was to determine what is poverty and what is not poverty.

The War on Poverty was not a rhetorical political slogan. It was real. 

Mollie died in 2006 when the poverty rate was 12.3 percent. 

Following the War on Poverty a couple of things happened. Median Household Income rose and the poverty rate fell. The poverty rate fell and then leveled off until the late 1970s. Oddly enough at the very same time poverty increased the median household income declined.

The late 70s was after the end of the Nixon era and the close of the Vietnam War. Does an economy justify war? I would hope not. 

Returning GIs, far fewer orders to Bell Helicopter for machines, but, racism was still a reality in the USA.