For those fans of The West Wing you might remember an episode that had a secondary story line about the way the federal government determines the definition of poverty. In 1963 Mollie Orshansky came up with a formula that was based on the amount families spent on food and we've been using it ever since. I thought you might be interested in reading these two articles, even if you're not a fan of the WW.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/2F441FA6C68B57A8862574BB00143E2E?OpenDocument



http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080906/OPINION01/809060257



Also, here's the information about the book Mark mentioned in staff on Thursday. If you click this link you can read an excerpt from the book.



http://www.amazon.com/White-Mans-Burden-Efforts-Little/dp/0143038826/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220963081&sr=1-1