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When I'm not trying to catch up on paid work, I should do an essay on this.  This came about when someone started complaining about "right wing" treatment of "the poor" on Facebook.

Now, John Scalzi has this excellent summary, of AMERICAN poverty, which he states is oriented toward America.  In context, this IS American poverty:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Someone posted this rejoinder, which, while more global, has an anti-American slant (even though it appears to be written by an American)

http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/645843.html

I'm an immigrant.  What most Americans consider "poor," I would have enjoyed in the UK, and that's in a modern western democracy.  Out of the "this is America" context, most Americans really have no idea what poverty really is.  So here's a real world one for you to ponder.

Today, I'm going to help a poor person. Tell me which person I should help, and why you choose that person.

Your choices are:

The 0bama-hating, right-wing disabled veteran living on $450 a month, with crippling headaches, who the VA and Social Security insist isn't really sick, and should just schedule work around the headaches the other 22 hours a day. Every doctor who's examined him says he's horrifically sick, but the people with the rule book know they're wrong. The $450 a month comes after a lengthy fight with the VA, that took the DAV, members of Congress and Channel 8 news to accomplish.