Viral essay stirs debate on America’s poverty line threshold

A Wall Street portfolio manager’s Substack essay has gone viral for arguing that a US family of four needs at least $136,500 a year to cover essentials. It is over four times the official federal poverty line of $32,150.

Michael W. Green backed his idea with findings. He estimated living costs based on Caldwell, New Jersey, which analysts say has a higher median income than the national median for a four-person household.

He notes that he recently learned that the US poverty line metric is outdated. The Department of Health and Human Services calculates it based on three times the cost of food for a family of four in 1963.

‘Valley of death’
While it is adjusted for inflation each year, the metric doesn’t account for other household costs that have surpassed food prices, such as rents, healthcare, insurance, and more.

Green argues that households earning roughly $40,000 to $100,000 occupy a “valley of death,” which implies they earn too much for food stamps and Medicaid benefits but too little, in his view, for economic stability. The median family income with two children was $109,300 last year.

Reception
His claim implies that most American families would be counted as living in poverty. The view has been praised by many as a necessary reset of how economic security is measured.

Critics called it unrealistic and disconnected from traditional definitions of deprivation.

Experts note that 35 million Americans live in poverty, and according to the Census Bureau, 1 in 4 Black and Native American children and 1 in 5 Hispanic children are included in it.