Topics: Economics and Personal Finances, Socioeconomic Class. 1  Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Research Center. 2  Rakesh Kochhar is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center.
In the United States, the Census Bureau determines who is poor using an economic poverty measure, by calculating official poverty estimates using a set of dollar-value thresholds, or minimum amount of income needed to meet basic needs, that vary by family size and composition.
People at 70 to 80 IQ are thought of as slow, simple-minded individuals that need supervision just to function. Those at 120 and above are the creative ones, the leaders. The bottom line to all of this is that Americans are falling behind.