When you're very poor almost all of your assets are your earning capacity which isn't counted. So a top notch MIT graduate who participated with say 5$ in the c

When you're very poor almost all of your assets are your earning capacity which isn't counted. So a top notch MIT graduate who participated with say 5$ in the cost of his education and can now earn a lot (which can be seen as a yielding asset) is now counted as 5$ poorer. Human capital isn't counted.