Our legal definition of poverty is floating and generally translates to "the bottom 30 percent", so of course we haven't seen a drop! This definition is proble

Our legal definition of poverty is floating and generally translates to "the bottom 30 percent", so of course we haven't seen a drop! This definition is problematic, not just because it makes the people pointing it out look like in-compassionate jerks, it obscures the real problems many people in poverty have and makes their causes harder to understand and address. It also gives many an excuse to dismiss the poor because, "the government is giving iPhones to them; they're problems can't be that bad."