Could You Afford to Be Poor?

There are people, concentrated in Manhattan's Upper East Side and Beverly Hills, who still confuse poverty with the simple life. No cable TV, no altercations with the maid, no summer home maintenance issues—just the basics, like family, sunsets, and walks in the park. What they don't know is that it's expensive to be poor. In fact, you, the reader of middling income, could probably not afford it.

A 2006 study from the Brookings Institution documents the "ghetto tax," or higher cost of living...