In the 60s (and 50s, though not sure why we're moving backwards) most households were single income; childcare costs were virtually nonexistent because mothers

In the 60s (and 50s, though not sure why we're moving backwards) most households were single income; childcare costs were virtually nonexistent because mothers typically stayed at home to raise children, and a family would get by on the father's income alone. That actually illustrates the point nicely: typical economic and living situations from when the metric was created were very different from today in a variety of ways, and once again, the reason the 3x food costs number was chosen -- that roughly 1/3 of income of low-income households was spent on food -- is simply no longer true. Now, what the poverty line should be is a whole 'nother topic -- for the record the ~150k number is more as an demonstration of how broken the metric is than an actual suggestion, at least as I see it. This discussion doesn't seem to be going anywhere though so I'm tapping out, but I would still appreciate it if you would link to the article you mentioned.