"Based on historical standards of material wellbeing and the terms of engagement, our War on Poverty is largely over and a success."
That's from a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Naturally, the announcement triggered a certain amount of incredulity. Had the CEA visited the nation's poorer urban, exurban and rural communities? If the War on Poverty is largely over and a success, why does poverty still seem to hold so many fortified positions?
Though the incredulous don't necessarily realize it, they're engaged in a vital methodological debate: What does it even mean these days to say that someone is poor?