My greater point is about the definition of poverty and perceptions therof. In the past, poverty was defined as lack of access to the basic necessities of life:

My greater point is about the definition of poverty and perceptions therof. In the past, poverty was defined as lack of access to the basic necessities of life: food, water, and shelter. That definition has expanded in scope quite dramatically. You say there are 500k in the U.S. that are unsheltered, and I would agree that, yes, those people most certainly fit the classic definition of poverty. But the U.S., according the U.S. Census Bureau, has 38 million people living under the poverty line. > can only manage to afford shit like dry pasta Go tell someone who is starving to death in Yemen or South Sudan how having access to dry pasta is the equivalent of real poverty. I'm sure they would correct you had they the energy. > The smartphone thing is moot; You only underscore my point. You take having a smartphone (a product of the Neoliberal system) so for granted that you believe it is "dumb" to point it out. A smartphone would have appeared as God's Real Magic 100 years ago. It is one of the most powerful tools ever built by mankind. > There's a lot of whataboutism as well, You literally "what about" multiple times in your own reply. Raising the minimum wage will result in fewer people getting jobs. This is accepted as fact by economists. As for your other prescriptions, they amount to, "Just do it." In other words, they are equally naive or uninformed. These are intractable problems in ultra complex systems that do not have easy or obvious solutions. For example, you write, "fix the health care system and make it affordable for everyone". Please do explain how to do this. But in your reply, please make sure to show your work. For instance, what are the trade-offs to a single payer healthcare system? Talk to any Briton over a pint and they will enumerate a long list of cons to their healthcare system, some of them very serious. When it comes to ultra complex systems, when one pulls one lever, a thousand others move, often in unexpected ways.