> "Importantly, it's a model that takes account of the economic circumstances people find themselves in—and the factors that can make the biggest difference to

> "Importantly, it's a model that takes account of the economic circumstances people find themselves in—and the factors that can make the biggest difference to their material well being. As such, it can be an important tool for governments and policymakers globally in identifying poverty and putting in place interventions that really tackle it." I'm not sure if this was intended irony, given that this study focused on India which has a caste system that relegates people in near destitute and attempts to justify because of that model as merely a Social norm. But also that we recently saw that video of mass revolt when workers at the Apple contractor's factory weren't paid. I find it hard to believe 'middle class' engineers and workers are going to risk prison and possible death if they weren't in poverty and that money meant not feeding their family or having a home in what are already dire circumstances for so many. How exactly would these people react to the re-labeling of their plight by academics who likely could never comprehend such low standards of living? Or the farmers who were committing suicide in large numbers due to the debts they racked up from Monsanto's BT seed program; many of whom were related or knew those farmers are now in the streets of Dehli defying government orders to protest against the hi-jacking of their subsidy for staple crops, and allowing the State to allow multi-national corps to enter their Markets and reduce their market share. I hardly think this conclusion from vague ML methods re-labeling them as 'middle class' will prevent them from feeling hunger-pains and living a hand to mouth existence as mass unemployment ravages the World. This really screams of a self-serving and impractical study that embellishes the use of 'machine learning' on subjects that could hardly be understood without being there and seeing how very clearly wide spread poverty afflicts India: its so detached from reality that its breath taking in its brazen crassness.