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A study to be released today by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, says that despite the boom, many families in America are struggling to meet expenses. The study calculated a “basic family budget” for various regions across the country and determined, for example, that in the District of Columbia, a two-child family needed $49,218 a year to meet basic expenses, which is far above the $17,463 poverty line determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. One of the authors of the study say that rising housing and child care costs have put many working class families in a situation in which it is difficult to enjoy a “decent standard of living.”