怎么样的情况才算是穷人?

How do you define poverty? How do you quantify that?

It's a great question. It's hard to quantify depends where you live, what your situation is, how many kids you have, all that. It's a gray area. But we went out here in New York and ask some folks on the streets, just to get a sense of what they think a family of four has to make to fall below that poverty line. Take a listen to their wide range of answers.

I would say anything less than 60,000 dollars a year would be poverty for a family of four.

Income probably 40,000, 45,000 dollars a year.

I would say 15,000 to 20,000.

I think a family making 80,000 dollars for a family of four is below poverty line.

You see, all over the board there, the actual answer, Brook, this shocked me. 22,050 dollars a year for a family of four. That's according to the 2009 number when you look at medicate, welfare, food stamps. That is what goes into determining what benefits people get that fall below the poverty line. The formula hasn't changed in 40 years no matter how the economy has changed, no matter how the job picture has changed. I doesn't factor in critical expenses like housing and your medical expenses until the Obama administration has just announced their development in new way to look at poverty. And it's gonna include those essentials. Here's why they say it's so important. Take a listen.

The administration has basically proposed to produce a supplementary poverty measure that will be produced next to the official measure, and will not replace it anyway, but will give us a second lens, another way to look at some of these issues.

And that's really important given this economy. Now, Brook, let's be clear here. This isn't gonna change how Federal dollars are allocated to people that fall below the poverty line. But it's gonna inform policymakers, give them a clear picture of just what's going on in this country. We're gonna get the first numbers from the new calculation. It'll come on the fall, Brook.

So with this new formula from the Obama administration, how would that translate in terms of people either above or below the poverty line? (Right.)More fall below or just the opposite?

Probably, that's what I think. That's what folks here we're talking too think. We can't get a clear answer on that from the administration. You've got to see, you've got to see how the formula works out. Let's take a look at New York City. I want to show you what happened in New York City. Two years ago, the city where we are right now started using their own measure of poverty. They factored in the extremely high cost of living here. For example, under Federal guidelines, when they followed the Federal procedure, in 2008 poverty was 17.6 percent in this city. When they followed their own guidelines including the high cost of living, the poverty level, the rate, if you will, was 22 percent. Brook, that's 350,000 more people in one city that fell under the poverty line. Imagine that multiplied on the national level. And that's why this is so important, especially in this economy. So we are gonna be watching for those numbers and more on this from the administration. Somebody could deny it though.

Glossary:

all over the board: showing a wide range of values with no particular pattern

food stamp: 食品券（发给失业者或贫民的粮票）

factor in: to include a particular thing in your calculations about how long something will take, how much it will cost etc