[sheepmullet]

You can live on very little if you live in poverty but that does not make it ok or acceptable. It is something we should be trying our hardest to eliminate. The idea that somebody should work hard each week and still be in poverty is a disgrace.

Poverty is a major problem in India. Close to 40% of all impoverished children in the world live in India. Hundreds of millions of Indians lack basic services such as electricity or a toilet in their homes. Hundreds of millions lack basic education. Not something we want to emulate.

It is much better in the major cities though where median PPP income is close to 7.5k USD.

The US has other cultural problems which make cost of living far higher than they have to be. For example many minimum wage jobs in the US "require" a car! Even if the job itself doesn't involve driving.