A better poverty measure

Pretty exciting news from the Census Bureau. The Census will begin developing an alternative way to measure poverty. Currently poverty is based on a formal developed in the 1960s, when food costs where a larger share of a household's income. Now food is less expensive and housing, child care, and medical expenses dominate.

While this is a big step forward in terms of better understanding the nature of poverty in the United States, changing the official poverty measure will most likely take years and a lot of political wrangling.

For more detailed information about this change see the Center for American Progress