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The Poverty of the Poverty Rate: Measure and Mismeasure of Material Deprivation in Modern America
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2189887 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
Eberstadt charges that the official US poverty rate is a broken compass a flawed index generating increasingly misleading numbers about poverty trends in the United States. The poverty rate should be replaced by a more accurate index (or indices) for describing material deprivation in modern America.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 196
Dimensions: Length: 8.9" Width: 6" Height: 0.4"
Weight: 0.65 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Nov 25, 2008
ISBN 0844742465
EAN 9780844742465
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Availability 1 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 04:25.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | A clear look at the flaws of our official poverty measure and why it should be replaced. Aug 19, 2009 |
The old saying that figures lie and liars figure only gives a sense of the problem with measures like the government's poverty rate. The real problem is that they are used without understanding what the number means, how it is derived, and the limits of what it can tell us. The other issue is that we don't clearly see how something that is as overused as the poverty rate has collected interests who depend on it in its present form or who advocate changes that will benefit them more than it will improve the measure. Because the interests tend to pile up on both sides of the dividing line the political stalemate leaves the old measure in place despite its many known and proven flaws.
Nicholas Eberstadt takes the time to explain what the official measure of poverty in American actually measures, what it is supposed to tell us about people in need, and what the trends have been over the past several decades. I also appreciate his explaining to us how the rate came to be and the limits it was known to have when it was created.
Statistics and social measures have come a long way over the past several decades, and the author shows us what they tell us and the discrepancies they demonstrate against the official poverty rate. We are also shown that the poor in America have greater expenditures than the income the poverty rate accounts for and that the gap between income and consumption is widening among the poor. He also explores what we know about the physical condition of the poor, their household accoutrements and medical care. Of course, this means the poverty rate measure is flawed, but for political reasons we cannot change it. Too many programs, incomes, and budgets are based on that old and out of date measure. Eberstadt does want to mend or fix the official rate, he wants it ended and completely replaced by a more accurate index of the depravation that actually exists in America.
This book should be useful for those interested in understanding poverty measures in America and to those who want to see how government measures are created and frozen in place so they can be used and misused in many political ways.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
| | | | An intriguing read for those interested in one of politics' most thrown about terms Mar 13, 2009 |
Definitions change over time, even when it apparently comes to statistics. "The Poverty of 'The Poverty Rate': Measure and Mismeasure of Want in Modern America" is a criticism of today's handling of the poor and needy in America. Judging the current measure of the poverty rate as a metaphorical broken compass, Eberstadt offers new ways to measure America's true poverty rate, stating that at this point, it is better to start over entirely than to repair a fundamentally broken system. "The Poverty of 'The Poverty Rate'" is an intriguing read for those interested in one of politics' most thrown about terms.
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