How much does an American family of four need to earn to avoid poverty' According to the Census Bureau, $32,130. But what if it were really $140,000' Late last month, the investor and Substack writer Michael Green advanced this attention-grabbing claim, which implies that a majority of Americans are living in poverty today. He argued, further, that families earning $40,000 to $100,000 were stuck in a 'valley of death' because 'benefits disappear faster than wages rise.' These figures have launched a thousand subsequent takes'most of them skeptical but some sympathetic. Chris Arnade, the author of the book Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, wrote that 'the core of its argument is correct' because too many people in 'the 'aspirational bottom' are being squeezed.' Under modest examination, Green's empirical claims fall apart. But they bespeak a troubling trend among the commentariat'and even some scholars'of exaggerating the extent of poverty in America. Social-justice...
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