We got new poverty figures today from the Census Bureau, and the news was mixed:
Using the old, official measure, the poverty rate was down 0.4 percentage points, dropping from 11.5% to 11.1%.
However, using the shiny new SPM, the poverty rate was up 0.5 percentage points, rising from 12.4% to 12.9%.
The SPM is generally considered a more accurate gauge because it accounts for both welfare benefits and taxes. Because of that, it fell sharply during the pandemic thanks to generous benefits in the various rescue packages. As those benefits disappeared, poverty went back up to its old, pre-pandemic rate. Unsurprisingly, this mainly hit non-white workers:
Overall, the main takeaway from today's report is that poverty didn't change very much in 2023 for white people but went up significantly for everyone else.
Perfect. Just as they planned it. /s