"Poverty in the United States: An Overview" by Cliff Brown
Brown presents key facts about the nature, extent, and causes of poverty in the U.S. He makes two main points: 1) Aggregate rates of poverty do not capture variation in its rate across sub-groups in the U.S., and 2) Americans tend to explain the causes of poverty in terms of personal and individual causal factors, such as the ability, efforts, and morals of people rather than their circumstances such as discrimination and blocked socioeconomic opportunities.
-In which of the following ways are statistics about the rate of poverty misleading?
A) It obscures variation in how far some live below the poverty line
B) It does not capture those who were born in poverty but experienced social mobility
C) It fails to capture how the elite population has expanded in recent decades
D) It fails to explain those who live in poverty throughout their lives.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Brown argues that aggregate rates of poverty do not capture the variation in poverty rates across sub-groups in the U.S. This suggests that poverty rates at the aggregate level can be misleading because they do not provide a nuanced picture of poverty rates in different demographic groups and particular regions.

"Poverty in the United States: an Overview" by Cliff Brown