--- Jeffrey Rous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The American poverty line today is someone around the real median income of Americans in 1950.<
Can you provide the evidence? The official poverty line is three times the minimal food cost. Since housing costs have risen much higher proportionally relative to food, with many poor folk spending half their income for housing rental, it seems to me that three times food costs would buy fewer goods. Housing costs in the 1950s were of course much lower relative to wages. So one cannot just look at real income, but also on the cost of living, especially housing. Of course there are goods today that were not available in the 1950s, some of which the poor own, such as microwave ovens, but in terms of purchasing power for goods in general, aside from technological improvements, I see little evidence that the poor today are better off. Fred Foldvary
