[MitchellC]

This plan [...] not to mention the fact that it does keep on changing

Examples of this.

[nopardons]

Sheeeeeeeeeeeesh.....you really should do your own scut work, but I tried to find a table and only found some rather long articles. Yet, several did say that those deemed to be living in poverty, today ( and the level in lower in the lower 48 states, than it is in Alaska and Hawaii ), have a MUCH higher standard of living in 2011, than those living at or below the poverty line 40 years ago.

Although the national poverty level/cutoff is the same in the lower 48, depending upon which state and even which city or town one lives in, at the poverty level some have far more than others.

Discounting illegals, even our rural "poor" live at a far higher level, now, than those in the same places did, throughout America's history!

Are you disputing the fact that our so-called poorest of the poor are doing better than poor peoples in other nations and/or at other periods of time?