What does poor mean?

In this article there was a study that said the average poor person in America is better off than the average person in Europe.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109386,00.html

I am not going to get into the discussion about whether or not the study is correct, it was a fairly short article with a small amount of numbers.

But I do want to discuss this statement.

I just think that measuring quality of life in the United States -- or for that matter anywhere -- by material possessions is morally bankrupt," said Bob Erlenbusch with the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger (search). "We've got in L.A. County on any given night, 80,000 to 90,000 people who are homeless."

Well what other measure would you propose for the quality of life. We could measure disease rate, education, access to health care, basic access to sanitation services. The list could go on, but all of these are affected by one thing: wealth. The more money you have the better access to services you will have.

This guy is a moron. I hope he dies when he trespasses on my land.

http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/faq.html#11

What is the human development index (HDI)?
The HDI; human development index; is a summary composite index that measures a country's average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and standard of living by GDP per capita (PPP US$).

Hmm it seems like money is important. It also seems like money affects the other two statistics greatly also.

cube