Topics: Economics and Personal Finances, Socioeconomic Class. 1  Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Research Center. 2  Rakesh Kochhar is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center.
In the United States, the Census Bureau determines who is poor using an economic poverty measure, by calculating official poverty estimates using a set of dollar-value thresholds, or minimum amount of income needed to meet basic needs, that vary by family size and composition.
Poor means a deficit or diminished quantity or volume of something. Some suggest that a person who is poor in Spirit, is one who admits not to have sufficient embodiment of The Spirit. That person is therefore not pompous, nor do they take The Spirit for granted.