Are poor people real?

I saw on another thread people arguing about the causes of poverty, whether it is the result of an individual's choices or the result of external factors.
But i think this argument presumes the existence of actual poor people. Now obviously some people have less than others, but i don't think that the people described as "poor" in the modern world, especially in the developed world actually qualify as poor. Poor should mean people who literally have nothing, and can barely find food to eat. But on the contrary the people called "poor" today are the most obese class. And they have access to shelter, water, food, heating, cooling, TV, the internet, etc. if you take a "poor" person today and put him in medieval times with all his possessions he would be living better than royalty.

Thoughts?

I feel sometimes it can be education that is the problem and or being in a situation that one can't earn enough money to ever manage to save any (so living one paycheck from poverty constantly) a few generations of this kind of existence I guess makes some people rather bitter.

I feel quite real at times!

I mean, there are literally people living as hermits, there are people being held in camps, there are people held as slaves, there are people that live as wandering monks and literally have nothing and ask for food and - of course - there are people that went to Vegas and lost everything. So I would argue that poor people are in fact real, of course given that we are real.

@RoseOfSharonCassidy said in #1:
> Now obviously some people have less than others, but i don't think that the people described as "poor" in the modern world, especially in the developed world actually qualify as poor. Poor should mean people who literally have nothing, and can barely find food to eat.

Who are you to define poverty? What you are describing here are people who literally are about to die of hunger. The poorest of poor people.

According to the UN in 2010 (-ish):
"Each day, 25,000 people [9.13 million people per year], including more than 10,000 children [3.65 million children per year], die from hunger and related causes. Some 854 million people worldwide are estimated to be undernourished, and high food prices may drive another 100 million into poverty and hunger."
www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/losing-25000-hunger-every-day

> But on the contrary the people called "poor" today are the most obese class. And they have access to shelter, water, food, heating, cooling, TV, the internet, etc. if you take a "poor" person today and put him in medieval times with all his possessions he would be living better than royalty.
>
> Thoughts?

Even if I grant that you are talking about "poor" people in the "developed world" which presumably means the USA in your opinion, that's still a false statement. Ask homeless people (about 580,000 people in the US experience homelessness, 225,000 of which are without shelter) in the US whether or not they have adequate access to shelter, heating, cooling, TV etc.
Source: Page 6 of www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2020-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

Even people who are not homeless can struggle immensely in the US. Think of a diabetic who's not able to afford the horrifically overpriced insulin they literally need in order to survive. And who's insurance doesn't cover it. Or who cannot afford health insurance altogether (which is mind-boggling by the way). But pull yourself up by your own bootstraps I guess.

So thoughts? Your post is extremely ill-informed. Yes, there are poor people (still far too many) and no, they don't live better than nobility in the middle ages by any stretch of the imagination. I know it probably was meant hyperbolically, but still.

@Thalassokrator said in #5:
> According to the UN in 2010 (-ish):
> "Each day, 25,000 people....

I don't believe that whenever someone talks about "poor people" they actually mean starving africans, if that is who they talk about they specify that.
> Even if I grant that you are talking about "poor" people in...
I would even say that homeless people today are better off than poor people 1000 years ago, they get food and shelter provided for them, and they make some money since they are buying so many drugs and alcohol no?

> Even people who are not homeless can struggle...
People of all classes struggle, i acknowledged that there is inequality, it's that those of the lower classes should not be called poor, because they are not poor. They are just lower class.

I've seen a good amount of dumb shit in this forum. And I've also seen a good amount of dumb shit elsewhere on the Internet and in real life. But this might rank on top of the dumbest shit I've ever seen.

How about you find a homeless guy and ask him if he's really poor? He might break your nose and I hope he does.