Bringing the number of Americans living in poverty to its highest levels since 1994, the poverty rate in the United States, reports the Census Bureau, increased to 14.3 percent last year, up from 13.2 percent in 2008. This is not the change on which Obama voters were counting.

The numbers, while distressing, require some elaboration, though, because poverty in America isn’t what it used to be. They also raise an interesting question, on which, more in a minute.

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