Living in Poverty

Apparently we are living in poverty. Our income is below that needed to support a family. So why aren't we starvng, dressed in rags and shivering in makedo carboard shelters? Have the government got it wrong? We live quite a comfortable life. We don't go hungry, we're well dressed and our home is warm and comfortable. OK, we don't have heaps of spare cash to spend on things we would like rather than need. We do hunt out the best bargains at the shops and settle for second best at the supermarket. So what is poverty? I often think of images from Victorian Britain when the word is mentioned. Children in rags playing on cobbled streets. Parents heading to and from smokey factories. Perhaps it's because those using the word 'poverty' have the life of a millionaire so anything less than a huge house and country estate, five cars and eating out every night is considered a pauper's lifestyle. Something has to be wrong. We need to re-evaluate just what it means to have and to have not. Not having a car doesn't make someone destitute. Not eating the finest of food doesn't make someone needy. People manage. We all have to manage by making the pound in our pocket go further. By making things last longer. To live in poverty must surely mean having very little or nothing. Let's think again before using this word...