There are certain things that make a person feel poor. There are also different levels of poverty. Poverty in America may mean luxury to a person from India, Mexico, or Africa. In the school system, there are kids who come from different economic backgrounds. This is one of the reasons why school systems throughout the United States enforced school uniforms. With school uniforms, there wouldn't be much of a distinction among students. I previously stated that there are certain things that make a person feel poor. For example, a student who sees his or her classmates with nice clothes or shoes may feel poor because he or she isn't privileged to have the same items. According to James Henslin, this is considered as relative poverty, which is to compare people's standard of living and concluding that some are worse or better off than others. So, this raises the question, "are we really poor?" All of us have felt inferior of some sort when our neighbors, classmates, or coworkers have something that we don't possess. Have you ever been homeless before? Have you ever suffered from malnutrition and starvation? Have you ever experienced the inadequacy of clothing and housing to a point where you have suffered exposure? This is called biological poverty. Have you ever been eligible for welfare benefits? If you so, then you have experienced official poverty. Finally, there is what you call the poverty line. This is considered as the official measure of poverty and it is based on three times a low- cost food budget. In 1955, there was a finding that poor people spend one-third of their income on food. That's approximately 33%, which is almost half of their income. There's also what the poverty threshold, which is the poverty line established by the government based on the minimal amount of money required for a subsistence level of living. Do we always agree with the government? I'll let you think about this question. On the other hand, the threshold varies with the size of the family. There are also critics of this measure who argue that it doesn't keep up with inflation. For some people, housing takes a larger amount of the family budget than for food. Here's the 2016 Federal Poverty Line Standards according to family size:

$11,880 for 1 person

$16,020 for 2 people

$20,160 for 3 people

$24,300 for 4 people

$28,440 for 5 people

$32,580 for 6 people

$36,730 for 7 people

$40,890 for 8 people

To continue, you would just add $4,160 for each additional person.