This sanguine view of poverty is always looked at in terms of overall increase in material goods. I am talking about soul crushing relative poverty just as much. Societies alter their patterns of survival and in so doing they create different tools that are necessities for their survival. For example, it can become a matter of survival to have a car in order to participate in the economic system of the society. A hunter-gather society that only needs 1–3 dollars a day, now needs a plow to start farming so now we we have that expense. We need to buy a till. It is starting to get pricey to farm.

The poverty tax I pay is tremendous. My family lived on $3 a day so we were rich internationally. That didn’t prevent all my poverty-related disease and disorder.

Extreme poverty, people living on 1–2$ a day, is one of the things increasing in the United States