I think this thread demonstrates that "poor" is a state of mind more than anything else. When I was in Hawaii the "hang loose" crowd had a phrase: If you want to be rich earn more or want less! That works.

True poverty is the lack of basic neccessities: air, water, food, clothing, shelter, human companionship/love. Being deprived of any one of those long enough can result in death. I would throw in there health also. You can have all the stuff and money in the world and if you are in bad health you can't really enjoy it.

Over and over I see that riches are a deceit. Those of you who have had to slug it out and make it on your own, so to speak, have learned things money can't buy and you also have a greater appreiation for the things you do acquire.

I would bet that a rich man would love to trade his esophageal ulcers and high anxiety to have a little pob and live in the love of a caring family, if he only knew that it was that which would give him peace.