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2 Winning the War on Poverty count the poor unless you are going to do something about them. What- ever the possibilities for socioeconomic research in general, when it comes to defining poverty, you can only be more subjective or less so. You cannot be nonsubjective.3 Researchers make a value judgment, quantitative or qualitative, when ana- lyzing poverty, and they operate on the theoretical premise that it is impor- tant for society to address, through targeted public policy initiatives, the vicissitudes of poverty. This theoretical foundation pervades many federal and state programs that were established by law to reduce the vestiges of poverty in the United States. Mollie Orshansky (1915–2006) Mollie Orshansky was born in New York City in 1915. Her parents were immigrants from what is now Ukraine. Her family was poor, and she was accustomed to standing in relief lines with her mother to get surplus food. Her direct experience with poverty provided her with a keen awareness of it. She understood that a person could work full time and still be poor.4 Orshansky was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and college. In 1935, she received an AB in mathematics and statistics from Hunter College. She later took graduate courses in economics and statistics after starting work as a federal employee in Washington, DC, at both the Department of Agriculture Graduate School and at American University.5 She started her first job in 1935 in New York City as a statistical clerk for the New York Department of Health. She had jobs in the federal government for the rest of her career, except for one position. In 1936, she moved to Wash- ington, DC, and began work as a junior statistical clerk with the U.S. Chil- dren’s Bureau. Subsequently, she was promoted to research clerk in 1939. She later held more advanced-level statistical jobs at the New York City Department of Health, the U.S. National War Labor Board, and the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board. She also worked as a family economist and later as a food economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was at the USDA that Orshansky became familiar with the food plans and the food survey she would later use to develop poverty thresholds in the United States.6 Orshansky was a family economist from 1945 to 1951, during which time she conducted research in family consumption patterns and levels of living. She worked with the USDA’s food plans for 15 years before she used them to develop her poverty thresholds when, in 1948, she and a colleague were responsible for responding to citizen inquiries regarding how people could survive on their existing income when they were confronted with inflation in the post–World War II era. As a food economist from 1953 to 1958, she