Emily Badger - The Atlantic Cities: Poverty – or, more generally speaking, deprivation – is a notoriously difficult thing to define. Whether or not you experience it has to do with how many mouths you have to feed, where your family lives, whether you pay for child care, what your daily transportation options look like, even how society philosophically defines a family's minimum needs to get by. The federal poverty line, on the other hand, doesn't take into account most of these nuances. It is, by definition, a stark line, not a geographically sophisticated matrix.
2 comments:
Working in metropolitan areas doesn’t necessarily generate more revenue than working in suburban or rural regions of America. If the government is going to create a supplemental poverty measure, they need to account for the economical differences in geographical location. A family just over the national poverty line won’t get nearly as far battling the costs of city-life as they will in less populated areas. Often, urban living means less commute time to and from work. Unless an inner city job generates enough revenue to pay the bills and raise a family, it may be more financially beneficial to move to a much cheaper location. A family living in New York has to make almost a million dollars annually just to take care of basic needs, which is a ridiculously high standard for many Americans. The map at the bottom illustrating the average annual family budget in each city is extremely helpful in getting a better understanding of the economical range of income across the nation. However, it would help to include the annual family income of rural or suburban areas, so that the article can better contrast how much dough it really takes to live in the big city.
Clearly, there is a desperate need for change regarding national recognition of poverty levels. There is a necessity for the accountability of various other factors, many of which the EPI seem to be attending to, that affect a given family's financial situation. However, when a family chooses to live somewhere, such as New York City, that family cannot expect greater pity or whatnot, solely because the cost for living is exponentially higher than a family living in West Virginia. Decisions produce outcomes, and although there may be benefits to living in a metropolis, when money and poverty are a family's nightly dinner guest, the possibility for moving to a less expensive area most certainly deserves attention, and possibly, action.
Kevin Paul (54-102 :: A, Acting 1, Cameron Knight)
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