Unlike the Official Poverty Measure, we include both cash and in-kind programs designed to fight poverty, including the market value of food stamps (now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), the school lunch program, housing assistance, and health insurance.
While the official poverty rate fell from 19.5 percent in 1963 to 10.5 percent in 2019, our [poverty measure] fell from 19.5 to 1.6 percent.
Additionally, government dependence increased over this time, with the share of working-age adults receiving under half their income from market sources more than doubling.
VALUATING THE SUCCESS OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S WAR ON POVERTY: REVISITING THE HISTORICAL RECORD USING AN ABSOLUTE FULL-INCOME POVERTY MEASURE by Richard V. Burkhauser, Kevin Corinth. James Elwell and Jeff Larrimore
NBER Working Paper [Includes an excellent literature review on the War on Poverty and how to measure poverty.]
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