Relative Poverty

If, when, why, what
How much have you got?
--Pet Shop Boys

Good point made by Prof Groseclose. For many, poverty is defined in relative terms. People who have significantly less than the rich are impoverished. Poverty requires prosperity to exist.

This is a strangely common view nowadays. If it doesn't scare the heck out of you, you're reading it wrong.

If *everybody* is poor, there's no poverty (!). If *everybody* is starving, there's no hunger. But if someone isn't, there is. So the easiest solution to the problem is... https://t.co/PbjoLTSu6N

— Per Bylund (@PerBylund) May 29, 2019

Viewed thru this distorted lens, when all are poor, there is no poverty.

Defining poverty in relative terms smacks of envy, covetousness, resentment