What would you define poverty as? Please be specific.What does one need to lack to be considered below poverty?

Poverty is when your iPod has less than 8 gigs of memory.

I like your answer.. I agree! Star

I agree with you, but I would add health care and education. Not affording cancer treatments will kill you just as easily as not affording food. However, I seriously doubt that any more than a small minority of the "poor" have cell phones.

Poverty is having no food to feed your crying child with a distended stomach. 51% of people on welfare in the United States are obese, according to a University of Michigan study.

I laughed at shovel ready's response, but I can't help but think it is true. Most of the poor have cell phones, internet and cable tv.

I agree with your definition. The only thing I would add is clothing.

The UN standard of poverty is living on less than $2 a day per person and since a billion people in the world have less than this, we know it is enough to survive, so it would meet your criteria. However most people in the US would say not just food but a well balanced diet, not just shelter but one with running water, heat and electricity and medical care are the bare minimum. Even if people do not care about the welfare of the poor, they do not want shanty towns in their cities like those in third world countries.

OK, you have a home, a car, a cell phone and a big screen TV. You have three kids and are a single working mother. You just lost your job and have no income. So what do you have to give up to get food stamps or TANF? The cell phone is the only phone - you need it to search for a job. You don't live near public transportation and need a car to job hunt, shop, and provide. You could sell the big screen - but since you can't pay on it any more it will be repossessed so you would go to jail if you sold it. So do the kids have to be out on the Street starving and dehydrated before society steps in to help? Or is it better to never let any American family get to that point? There is only one acceptable answer to that question. Most here on this forum will choose the wrong answer.

If you can't get out of the rain, and you have no idea where your next meal is I would call that poverty.