In this op ed piece, Sheldon Danziger addresses critics of antipoverty programs and the poverty rate itself. He says the official poverty rate (15%) is misleading because it does not count benefits from programs that help the poor. He also says that, while recognizing the successes of safety net programs we now have, we must devise “new policies that can spread the gains generated by economic growth. If we don’t, then we will continue to face poverty rates that are unacceptably high, and wonder why we can’t do anything about them.”

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