The one thing I would observe or add is that it's not entirely true to say we've not made any success in reducing poverty. When you look at seniors, the rate and depth of poverty since 1980 has come down, and come down dramatically. It reflects, in part, public programs that have been put in place specifically to address poverty among seniors.
So the lesson is, even if one were to say that the low-income cut-off is not the perfect measure of poverty, it nonetheless can show us that we've made substantial success in reducing poverty among seniors. But there are other groups in society—children with families, lone-parent families, working-age adults—where we haven't made success.
We have to decide. Let's have the government chose what is going to be the official target measure or benchmark, and then put in place a strategy to reduce poverty. We've had success in reducing poverty among seniors; we can do it among other members of the population.