Poverty In USA

18 Pages 4529 Words

Poverty is defined as being below the federal guidelines for income and if you

are then you are in poverty. People in poverty live all over the United States but

there is more poverty in some places that others. To measure poverty in the United

States the U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of money income, which set the

beginning level of poverty, but the poverty level for each family varies by the

family size and composition in determining who lives in poverty. When the

families income as a whole is at or below the level of poverty for their family size,

then everybody in the family and the family as a whole is considered poor and is

considered to be living in poverty (census, 1). Poverty is the state of being poor

and all the families that fall under the income the income for the size of their

family are considered poor by the U.S. Census Bureau (census,1) . These are the

sets of income that the U.S. Census has for the size of each family to determine

whether or not they are living in poverty (census, 1).

2001 Federal poverty Guidelines for the 48 contiguous States and the District of Columbia
Number in
Family Gross Yearly
Income *Gross Monthly
Income Approximate
Hourly Income**
1 $8590 $716 $4.13
2 $11,160 $968 $5.58
3 $14,630 $1,219 $7.03
4 $17,650 $1,471 $8.49
5 $20,670 $1,723 $9.94
6 $23,690 $1,974 $11.39
7 $26,710 $2,226 $12.84
8 $29,730 $2,478 $14.29
Over 8 add for each child +$3,020 +$252 +$1.45


*Rounded to the nearest dollar **Assumes a full time job for a full year (2080 Hours)

The way poverty is measured for Massachusetts is not realistic because the poverty level

is to low for some states and to high for others because what the federal guidelines

consider poverty in one state may just be the average earnings of that state. In order to be

considered poor in Massachusetts you have to be making practically nothing. In my

opinion poverty should...