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One of the obstacles to discussion is that “the poor” are not a monolithic homogeneous group. Politicians often refer to them as such, we hear a lot about “the poor” this year in the candidate comments and speeches. Statisticians attempt to outline the boundaries and extent of “the poor”. It has, in fact, become rather politically incorrect to make any type of critical comment or statement about “the poor” (any of them or all of them). </p>
<p>But the fact is that there are many degrees/levels of poor and many problems and issues associated with poverty that do or don’t affect various groups and individuals. So for someone simply to say “we were poor” doesn’t really tell us much about the problems and issues they had as a result. We can’t extract general principals from one person’s experience alone.</p>