Stiglitz has a political agenda so his definition of poverty is not what you might think (i.e. lack of food or shelter) but "relative poverty" - defined as income below 50% of median adjusted for family size (which are larger for poor families). It would be nice if he mentioned this...<p>Edit: Also this is based on (pre-tax?) income before transfers such as subsidized food, housing and healthcare which distorts comparisons (i.e. in the US, unlike almost every rich countries, only the poor get free or subsidized healthcare).