DISQUS

I'd also like to add that there is a difference between what we in developed countries define as poverty, and what rural folks living on meager incomes would define it. There is a difference between living on little but being self-sustainable and the wretchedness of urban slums. Example--I traveled a bit in rural Oaxaca where indigenous folks still follow their community practices of devoting individual time to cleaning the village, growing crops for the village, running the tourist centers, etc. All of these people are "poor", but they are not wretched. They have enough to eat, their town is clean and sanitary, and if someone in the village is in need, the town helps out.

This would not work for the urban poor, but I think it skews statistics when one says a certain number of people in the world are poor. Being poor does not always mean living in wretched circumstances.