It's worth noting that Eike Batista, whom the article mentions as an example for someone "anybody trying to get by on less than a dollar a day" would "happily c

It's worth noting that Eike Batista, whom the article mentions as an example for someone "anybody trying to get by on less than a dollar a day" would "happily change places with" had most of his assets seized a year after the article was written and was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison. Additionally Jérôme Kerviel's €4.9 billion fine was reduced to $1 million two years after the article came out but he served five months in prison the same year the article was written. The article's framing implies that these "debt billionaires" significantly impact these statistics but doesn't demonstrate whether this is the case by contrasting them with other measures, only making vague comparisons between American and Chinese "savings relative to household income". But arguably a debt-free Chinese person with modest savings is less poor than a working class American with debts they can barely afford paying the interest on because the latter is practically living under indentured servitude.