Thoughts on Poverty

I must really be out of it. I thought poverty was living in a shack with no electricity and no running water, not having enough to eat, and dying because you can not afford the 1.5 cedis (0.75 US) that it costs to buy anti-malaria medicine. It turns out in the US you can own two cars, run the air conditioning 24/7, have a big screen television with cable and still be considered "poor." There is real poverty even in America. That is people sleeping on the streets in all of their clothes and diving in dumpsters to eat. To me lumping the two groups of people together is ludicrous. In one case you have a group of people who own luxuries that most people in the world including myself will probably never be able to afford. In the other case you have people who are literally just one cold night away from death.