the "poor people have lots of stuff!" kind of thinking pollutes the discussion.
...doesn't that go right to the core of the issue? Some people think that relative "wealth" is the proper measure of "well-being". And others think that absolute "wealth" is the proper measure of "well-being". All the arguments around this issue seem to boil down to this essence.
Dismissing the discussion out-of-hand because of certain items that one thinks are "luxury goods" is the problem. I have no quarrel with discussions of what weatlth or well being means. I do disagree with the blanket statement of "since a person has X they aren't really poor".
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...doesn't that go right to the core of the issue? Some people think that relative "wealth" is the proper measure of "well-being". And others think that absolute "wealth" is the proper measure of "well-being". All the arguments around this issue seem to boil down to this essence.
Dismissing the discussion out-of-hand because of certain items that one thinks are "luxury goods" is the problem. I have no quarrel with discussions of what weatlth or well being means. I do disagree with the blanket statement of "since a person has X they aren't really poor".