As the article points out, childcare eats up most of the second income. 

I often council two-income families to actually think through how much they benefit from the second income. It’s usually well under minimum wage, once all the associated costs are factored in. 

Yeah, $140k felt pretty high to me. The childcare number really is a big chunk (and one that I don't see in my own life, because we homeschool), so I wonder if it isn't closer to true for a family that does have to make that spend in order to allow their income.

Scoresby

econ

The real poverty line in the US isn't $31,200: it's $140,000 - Michael Green

The tricky part is that the participation tickets got so expensive because almost everyone had opted into those systems already and were choosing to buy higher quality (although a lot of it is also regulatory burden). 

There’s merit to the overall point but $140k is a preposterous number. I have a family of three and it would be obscene to suggest that we’re living in poverty. We’re actively looking for ways to scale down because we’d rather have even less and not have to work as much. 