It's startling and disturbing to me that 20% of people polled believe that "not having enough to eat and live without going into debt" doesn't count as poverty.

I'm also surprised that it's permitted to be so subjective. Even the research author says, "Statistics can tell us how many people fall below a specified threshold. They cannot decide for us where that threshold should be drawn." I disagree. No-one should be choosing amongst sufficient shelter, food, and utilities every month. Or week. Or day. Spend some time visiting with people below various "statistical thresholds", and it should be fairly obvious.

Actually, then again, maybe don't. Because many politicians, seeing a heavily stoned person sharing a dirty bedroom in a crowded drug-positive tenement, learning they spend 90% of the pittance they earn or receive on self-harm, not understanding that a 6 week rehab program won't turn them into corporate executives, not understanding the terrible spiralling self-hate cycle they're caught in, would simply dismiss them as subhumans beyond hope so not worth the investment.

A struggling average middle-class family is something they can parse and comprehend, and know they're likely to vote, so can pander and glad-hand to them to maintain a political career.