There is a consensus among poverty experts that over the past 50 years there has been some improvement in the condition of the poor. …
Despite the rising optimism, there are disagreements over how many poor people there are and the conditions they live under. There are also questions about the problem of relative poverty, what we are now calling inequality. Poverty cannot be viewed in isolation from the larger economy. We must take disparities in the way the benefits of growth and productivity are distributed into account. CONT.
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times