Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Describe the problems that the author has with how the "poverty level" is calculated in this country?

Is she correct on this score, explain please!

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The official poverty level is still calculated by the archaic method of taking impossibly low cost of food for a family of a given size and then multiplying this number by three. This formula does not include the inflation of rent. Depending on where one lives, rent can easily be out of grasp for the working poor. Then there are other inflationary expenses which are not calculated in the formula.