Working hard, but still poor. Our economy is broken. | Moran – NJ.com

Making the Two New Jerseys One — The official poverty rate, based on the cost of food in 1963, is a fiction. The United Way calculated the real cost of essential in its “Alice” report, and found that 41 percent of New Jersey children live in households that can’t meet the cost of a no-frills lifestyle.

Alicia Quetel might be surprised to learn that she and her children are not poor, at least according to the federal government. Because it sure feels that way to her.

And if you listen to her story, and multiply it by millions, you can’t help but conclude that we are not facing the truth about poverty in this country, that the federal measure is a farce, and that our treatment of decent working people like her is a perfect disgrace.

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