Blog 1

     Poverty thresholds are used for statistical purposes and poverty guidelines are for administrative purposes. The poverty threshold itself is the minimum level income that a country deems adequate for a family to live off of. Listed below are what the poverty guidelines were for 2013.

     The poverty threshold is based off of the "basket of goods" that a household goes through in one fiscal year.  The basket of goods includes food, rent, and anything else that is necessary to live in today's society. While the poverty threshold is a mildly sufficient way of showing who in the world is poor and who isn't, it still isn't 100% cutting it. There are certain situations that the poverty threshold doesn't account for, such as the simple fact that the poverty threshold was created in the 1950s and has only had minor adaptations over the years. The way that people live and the requirements that they have in order to live have changed significantly since the 1950s, making this a poor way of accurately portraying who is poor in today's society. Another problem that the poverty threshold has, is that it accounts for a family's pretax income instead of a family's income after tax, giving an inaccurate representation of what the family is actually making. Something else that the current poverty threshold doesn't account for is emergency expenses, such as out of pocket medical expenses and housing repair situations. 

     Overall, the poverty threshold is doing a semi-decent job of serving its original purpose. However, there are a number of things that could be updated and improved that would benefit the masses a significant amount. Below is a breakdown of the United States based on the amount of people living below the poverty line.