Pertinent Vocabulary: OPM: The official poverty measure (otherwise known as the OPM) is the assessment currently used by the U.S. government to determine the poverty threshold, or poverty line, in the United States. Mollie Orshansky designed the OPM by multiplying a “lowest cost food plan” for different sized families by three, because in 1955 it was found by the Household Food consumption Survey that families of three or more spent about one third their after-tax incomes on food. The OPM is adjusted for inflation but other than that it remains constant over time and does not change as standards of living change. Another potential flaw of the OPM is that it does not take in to account non-cash assets (or in-kind benefits) which include Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies, nor does it include tax credits and costs and other non-discretionary expenses such as childcare costs and necessary transportation costs. (Iceland, Poverty in America) FCSU needs: Are food, clothing, shelter, and utility needs of any given person or family. SPM – The supplemental poverty measure (SPM) was created in response to the belief that the OPM is outdated and accounts for more variables than the OPM. The SPM is a relative measure of poverty, meaning it adjusts relative to a society’s “level of social, economic and cultural development”. (Iceland) The SPM is based on FCSU needs rather than food times three and accounts for the impacts of varying housing costs, tax credits or expenses, out of pocket medical expenses, and in kind benefits (which include foodstamps, Medicaid, and housing benefits). (Short) Capabilities/Functionings: Functionings as defined by Amartya Sen are “the various things that a person manages to do or be in their life” whereas capabilities are “the alternative combinations of functionings a person can achieve, and from which he or she can choose one collection. The capabilities approach to poverty allows for a more direct view of what the OPM and SPM are really trying to measure through income, which is what that income allows a person to do or be. Martha Nussbaum goes so far as to list 10 such capabilities she believes are necessary for a person to “pursue a dignified and minimally flourishing life”, these are: Life, Bodily health, Bodily integrity, Senses imagination and thought, Emotions, Practical reason, affiliation, other species, play, and control over one’s environment. ​ Motivational underpinnings of poverty analysis—the fact that all measures of poverty use their specific metrics (money, capabilities) as a means to indirectly determine quality of life rather than simply measuring those factors for their own sakes. Works Cited: (money) wpclipart.com. September 27th, 2014, web, http://www.wpclipart.com/money/money_... (house) bomeng.org. September 27th, 2014, web, http://www.bomeng.org/small-houses/20... pyramid) return2health.net. April 26, 2013, September 27, 2014, web, http://www.return2health.net/articles... (clothes) tabletopstudio-store.com. September 27, 2014, web, http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com... (utilities) raveon.com. September 27, 2014, web, http://www.raveon.com/utilities.html (housing costs distribution) nytimes.com. September 12, 2007, September 27, 2014, web, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/us/... (subsidized housing) hud.gov. September 27, 2014, web, http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?s... (Einstein) radiosalveregina.com. September 27, 2014, web, http://www.radiosalveregina.com/categ... (thumbs up) Wikimedia.org. September 27th, 2014, web, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil... (Ferrari) clipart-fr.com. September 27th, 2014, web, http://en.clipart-fr.com/search_clipa... (homeless man) Southporttimes.com. Auguest 6th, 2014, September 27, 2014, web, http://southporttimes.co.uk/?p=1401 Articles: Iceland, John. Poverty in America a Handbook. Berkely Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. Nussbaum, Martha. Creating Capabilities the Human Development Approach. Cambride, Massachussets: Harvard University Press, 2011. Sen, Amartya. The Quality of Life. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1993. Short, Kathleen. “The Research Supplemental Poverty Measure.” Consumer Income November 2011. Electronic Article.

• published: 28 Sep 2014
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