When the Census Bureau began calculating poverty a half-century ago – as a “war on poverty” became a hot issue in Washington – it devised a rather simple formula.
The formula defined income that would be counted – excluding non-cash income such as food stamps and housing subsidies – and applied it to a narrow “market basket” of food and other living necessities.
All the data were nationwide, with no adjustments for regional or local differentials.
By the official poverty index, California doesn’t fare too badly, with 17 percent of its residents impoverished, a bit above the national rate of 15.9 percent.
However, it’s long been recognized that the formula is flawed, not only because it excludes some kinds of income, but because its living costs are incomplete and there is no adjustment for the very wide differences in housing and other costs from state to state and community to community.
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