Excerpt:

A new study in the journal Social Indicators Research proposes just such a multidimensional approach to looking at poverty in the U.S. It would lead to more accurate assessments, it argues, of  whether the basic needs are being met within a household.

"The federal poverty line was set up during Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty — that's how dated the poverty line is," says author Shatakshee Dhongde, an assistant professor in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech. "It's been updated with respect to inflation, but what hasn't changed is the notion of income, what you include in income, and the formula that was established back in the 1960's to tell whether families are able to meet their basic needs — that hasn't changed."

For the full article, read here.