Blog Action Day - Defining, Meeting the Threshold of Poverty .....

For more than 800 years, a variation of the word poverty has been used to describe a "state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence."

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day, with the goal of raising awareness and triggering a global discussion. The focus this year is on poverty.

So, what is poverty? ... what defines it? ... what measures it? Nothing like a little data to aid a discussion and answer a question. A good source for data on poverty in the United States can be found at the U.S. Census Bureau website, particularly their Poverty Main Page. Here you can find basic facts about poverty and how it is measured; view the most recent reports, briefs, and data on poverty for the past twelve months; find definitions to poverty-related terms and links to other agencies or organizations that provide poverty data and information ... and lots more.