Here’s more data: 600 million people in China lie on less than $4000 a year, and 600 million in India living on less than $3000 a year. It’s not dire in America like that. I grew up on welfare for a couple years after my parents divorce and we had a car, a government apartment, food stamps, a color tv. That was way in the early 80s. Not great, but not dire poverty. I’m hesitant since then to believe in the picture of dire poverty painted in America.