American Poverty in the 1960's

Since the purpose of this paper is to examine poverty in America during this past decade, only the most recent revision of poverty definitions will be considered. The recent modifications of the concept of poverty have been adopted by all agencies of the federal government. The origin and basis of the modern definition lies in the poverty index thresholds developed in 1964 by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration.1 These thresholds are based upon minimum food and other needs of 124 different family classifications, taking account of family size, sex of family head, age of members, and whether farm or nonfarm residents. The current definition has been improved to adjust income for changes in the Consumer Price Index. Thresholds for farm families are computed at 85 percent of corresponding nonfarm family income levels. The difference in the farm and nonfarm threshold is essentially used to reflect the value of home grown food which is consumed by farm families and which permits them to enjoy higher living standards for equivalent income levels.