PLS 101 MIDTERM UPDATED ACTUAL
Questions and CORRECT Answers
federal poverty line - CORRECT ANSWER - A measure of income issued every year by
the Department of Health and Human Services. Used to determine your eligibility for certain
programs and benefits, including savings on Marketplace health insurance, and Medicaid and
CHIP coverage. 2017 line- fam of 4 $30,000
supplemental poverty measures - CORRECT ANSWER - Instead of using a food plan, the
SPM poverty thresholds are based on expenditures on FCSU plus a small amount to allow for
additional expenses. These thresholds are further adjusted for different family sizes and
compositions, housing status, and geographic differences in housing costs
basic family budgets (Economic Policy Institute) - CORRECT ANSWER - EPI's Family
Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate
standard of living. Compared with the federal poverty line and Supplemental Poverty Measure,
EPI's family budgets provide a more accurate and complete measure of economic security in
America.
Molly Orshansky - CORRECT ANSWER - Mollie Orshansky was an American economist
and statistician who, in 1963-65, developed the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds, which are used in
the United States as a measure of the income that a household must not exceed to be counted as
poor.
How are the federal poverty guidelines in any given year determined? - CORRECT
ANSWER - The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the federal poverty
thresholds used for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for
certain federal programs. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).HHS issues poverty guidelines in late January of each year.
Some programs make them effective on date of publication, others at a later date. For example,
the 2013 poverty guidelines were issued in January 2013, calculated from the calendar year 2011
thresholds issued in September 2012, updated to reflect the price level of calendar year 2012.
Therefore, the 2013 poverty guidelines are approximately equal to the poverty thresholds for
2012 (for most family sizes). Guidelines vary by family size.
, What are some criticisms of the poverty measure? - CORRECT ANSWER - ne major
criticism is that the official poverty level is too low. Current research suggests that, on average,
families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level just to afford basic expenses.
Moreover, although the cost of living varies significantly within and across states, the federal
poverty level is the same across the continental U.S.
What are some alternative approaches to measuring poverty? - CORRECT ANSWER -
Exercises such as the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) project seek to fill this gap.
Representative groups of the public work with experts to determine the income required to live at
a socially acceptable level.
Based on Census data from 2016 (released in September), which population groups are
overrepresented among the poor? (i.e. Who is most likely to be poor?) How has this changed
since the 1960s? - CORRECT ANSWER - children, before it was elderly
What are the special challenges of concentrated poverty, and what kinds of approaches are being
tried to address it? (In answering this question, you may focus on one community in the Federal
Reserve/Brookings report.) - CORRECT ANSWER - Many metro areas across the country
are already working regionally on strategies to increase access to opportunity for urban and
suburban residents alike. In the Denver region, Mile High Connects is helping to leverage the
expansion of the transit network to increase access to housing choices, jobs, and services for
low-income and minority residents. In regions like Chicago and Baltimore, metro areas are
finding ways to strategically use housing subsidies to increase options in higher opportunity
areas for low-income families. To modernize the outdated playbook of place-based, anti-poverty
policies, policymakers and practitioners can learn from and help scale up the innovative models
regions have already begun building to address shared challenges in more cross-jurisdictional
and integrated ways. Failing to do so not only risks further entrenching concentrations of
disadvantage in long-struggling cities, but also creating a new wave of chronically distressed
places in the nation's suburbs. (MIAMI)
Is it more useful to think about poverty in terms of "poor people" or "poor places"? Do these two
approaches suggest different kinds of policies? - CORRECT ANSWER - poor places
What was the significance of Michael Harrington's book, The Other America? How has the poor
population changed since Harrington wrote? - CORRECT ANSWER - a haunting tour of
deprivation in an affluent society - that inspired Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to
wage a war on poverty. It is now a generation later and, thanks in part to Harrington, the poor are
Questions and CORRECT Answers
federal poverty line - CORRECT ANSWER - A measure of income issued every year by
the Department of Health and Human Services. Used to determine your eligibility for certain
programs and benefits, including savings on Marketplace health insurance, and Medicaid and
CHIP coverage. 2017 line- fam of 4 $30,000
supplemental poverty measures - CORRECT ANSWER - Instead of using a food plan, the
SPM poverty thresholds are based on expenditures on FCSU plus a small amount to allow for
additional expenses. These thresholds are further adjusted for different family sizes and
compositions, housing status, and geographic differences in housing costs
basic family budgets (Economic Policy Institute) - CORRECT ANSWER - EPI's Family
Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate
standard of living. Compared with the federal poverty line and Supplemental Poverty Measure,
EPI's family budgets provide a more accurate and complete measure of economic security in
America.
Molly Orshansky - CORRECT ANSWER - Mollie Orshansky was an American economist
and statistician who, in 1963-65, developed the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds, which are used in
the United States as a measure of the income that a household must not exceed to be counted as
poor.
How are the federal poverty guidelines in any given year determined? - CORRECT
ANSWER - The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the federal poverty
thresholds used for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for
certain federal programs. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).HHS issues poverty guidelines in late January of each year.
Some programs make them effective on date of publication, others at a later date. For example,
the 2013 poverty guidelines were issued in January 2013, calculated from the calendar year 2011
thresholds issued in September 2012, updated to reflect the price level of calendar year 2012.
Therefore, the 2013 poverty guidelines are approximately equal to the poverty thresholds for
2012 (for most family sizes). Guidelines vary by family size.
, What are some criticisms of the poverty measure? - CORRECT ANSWER - ne major
criticism is that the official poverty level is too low. Current research suggests that, on average,
families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level just to afford basic expenses.
Moreover, although the cost of living varies significantly within and across states, the federal
poverty level is the same across the continental U.S.
What are some alternative approaches to measuring poverty? - CORRECT ANSWER -
Exercises such as the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) project seek to fill this gap.
Representative groups of the public work with experts to determine the income required to live at
a socially acceptable level.
Based on Census data from 2016 (released in September), which population groups are
overrepresented among the poor? (i.e. Who is most likely to be poor?) How has this changed
since the 1960s? - CORRECT ANSWER - children, before it was elderly
What are the special challenges of concentrated poverty, and what kinds of approaches are being
tried to address it? (In answering this question, you may focus on one community in the Federal
Reserve/Brookings report.) - CORRECT ANSWER - Many metro areas across the country
are already working regionally on strategies to increase access to opportunity for urban and
suburban residents alike. In the Denver region, Mile High Connects is helping to leverage the
expansion of the transit network to increase access to housing choices, jobs, and services for
low-income and minority residents. In regions like Chicago and Baltimore, metro areas are
finding ways to strategically use housing subsidies to increase options in higher opportunity
areas for low-income families. To modernize the outdated playbook of place-based, anti-poverty
policies, policymakers and practitioners can learn from and help scale up the innovative models
regions have already begun building to address shared challenges in more cross-jurisdictional
and integrated ways. Failing to do so not only risks further entrenching concentrations of
disadvantage in long-struggling cities, but also creating a new wave of chronically distressed
places in the nation's suburbs. (MIAMI)
Is it more useful to think about poverty in terms of "poor people" or "poor places"? Do these two
approaches suggest different kinds of policies? - CORRECT ANSWER - poor places
What was the significance of Michael Harrington's book, The Other America? How has the poor
population changed since Harrington wrote? - CORRECT ANSWER - a haunting tour of
deprivation in an affluent society - that inspired Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to
wage a war on poverty. It is now a generation later and, thanks in part to Harrington, the poor are
