After many decades of serious empirical analysis of poverty by tens of thousands of researchers in hundreds of research institutions in dozens of countries worl

After many decades of serious empirical analysis of poverty by tens of thousands of researchers in hundreds of research institutions in dozens of countries worldwide, I find it hard to believe people still trot out personal anecdotes as if they mean anything. The roots of poverty are pretty well-known (and have nothing to do with self-chosen ignorance or indolence, regardless of the claims of these variants of Victorian-era propaganda). The effects of different political policies on poverty rates, from the most corrupt and least competent (the US) to the opposite pole (Nordic nations) have been understood for many years. This anecdote is as relevant to poverty as war-stories of magical 'alternative' cancer therapies are to the effects of real medicine.