How much has the U.S. poverty rate declined?
Official percent poor in 1964: 19.0%
Official percent poor in 2013: 14.5%
Reduction to correct for:
Value of noncash benefits – 3.0%
Omission of refundable tax credits – 3.0%
Replacing CPI-U with PCE index – 3.7%
Adjusted percent poor in 2013: 4.8%
That is adapted from a Christopher Jencks review, “The War on Poverty: Was It Lost?”, in the 2 April 2015 New York Review of Books.
Do any of you know a good link-accessible version of comparable information? By the way, here is Ross Douthat on money and culture.