&gt; My claim is simple. The U.S. is the most prosperous place on the planet, the inequality doesn&#x27;t touch at least a hundred other countries. Again, inequality isn&#x27;t necessarily an indicator of poverty.<p>The comparisons you make are on absolute terms but the reality is more nuanced. There are almost 47 million people living in poverty in the US [1] and something like 38% of the population live paycheque-to-paycheque (up from 31% in the late 90s) [2]. Even if most of those people are food-secure (something like 90% of Americans in poverty are) those numbers should still be pretty alarming. Just because the average American has it much better than the average African doesn&#x27;t mean their situation is necessarily very good.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;hhes&#x2F;www&#x2F;poverty&#x2F;about&#x2F;overview&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;hhes&#x2F;www&#x2F;poverty&#x2F;about&#x2F;overview&#x2F;index....</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbsnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;more-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbsnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;more-americans-live-paycheck-to-...</a>