&gt; Look at the definition of poverty and you&#x27;ll agree it&#x27;s certainly a form of poverty, but again compared to the majority of the planet doesn&#x27;t really cut it.<p>Poverty is defined along a spectrum, not relative to some kind of global nadir.<p>&gt; Living paycheck to paycheck is generally an unfortunate choice or lack of education, but the point remains that there&#x27;s a paycheck.<p>You&#x27;re misrepresenting the situation by arguing it&#x27;s a lifestyle choice. When you&#x27;re poor it&#x27;s very hard to save much of anything. Housing, transportation and food can quickly eat up most of a weekly paycheque.<p>&gt; Our ability to generate the paycheck or our ownership of assets on average outstretches the vast majority of the planet.<p>Nobody is arguing the US the is place to be if you have money. The point I&#x27;m trying to spell out for you is that the averages you discuss are massively skewed by huge inequality. America&#x27;s middle class are no longer the world&#x27;s richest and they are shrinking in number. More, America is increasingly opting for a a system of governance that is leaving more and more people behind, especially its most vulnerable.