Sociopoly: Life on the Boardwalk

IMAGINE YOURSELF SUPPORTING a family of four on $16,530 a year. Sounds difficult, does it not? The reality is millions of people struggle at or below this level. The U.S. Census arbitrarily assigns $16,530 as the poverty threshold for a family of four. In 1998, 34.5 million persons fell below the official poverty level, and although less than half the poor are African American and Latino, poverty rates for minorities are more than double compared to non-Hispanic whites (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1999a). Clearly, the lower the social class, the more difficult to secure appropriate housing and the greater the percentage of income for food and other basic necessities. Persons