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Article: Poverty line
- Article from:
- Charleston Gazette
- Article date:
- September 30, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 Charleston Gazette. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The problem, experts say, is that the poverty line has little
relevance in the modern world. It is a holdover from a time when
food represented a third of all household costs and child care wasnt
an issue. ST. LOUIS - Twice a month Tonetta Jenkins of Swansea,
Ill., retreats to her bedroom, turns on some music and spreads her
bills out across the bed.
There, from a good vantage point, Jenkins, 43, practices what some
call creative arithmetic, what others call trying to get blood from a
stone.
Jenkins works a 40-hour week as a psychiatric aide and yet
frequently finds herself having to choose between which bills to pay