"This measure also needs to be aggressively promoted at the federal level so that it can impact government programs that serve the millions of people living in poverty across the country who are not currently seen as poor because of an over 40-year-old measurement," Jean-Francois continued. Presidential aspirant Sen. Barack Obama apparently had a similar thought, endorsing the Bloomberg administration's effort as a step in the right direction.
Cauthen has quibbles about the specific methodology of the CEO measure – she worries that calling $26,000 the "poverty line" for a family of four is misleading, since that's after deducting transportation, child care, and medical expenses: "You need to have $26,000 left over to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and a few other things." Her organization's Basic Needs Budget, in contrast, calculates that for a New York City family of four with a preschooler, their basic needs budget is $65,000 – with $20,000 of that going for child care.
Still, Cauthen joins other poverty researchers in calling the new measure "a huge advance" over the old poverty line. "We need a much better poverty measure, and I think this fits the bill. But if we care about expanding the middle class, we need to go beyond a basic needs budget, and look at: What do you need to send a child for college? If you're going to put something in the bank for a rainy day? If you're going to be prepared for a medical crisis? A revised poverty measure is long overdue and welcome, but it should be just the beginning."
