To really determine who is poor in the US, count all anti-poverty spending
“In their latest report on Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018 released on September 10th, the US Census Bureau reported that, in 2018, the share of Americans living in poverty fell for the fourth consecutive year. According to this latest official government information, 11.8 percent of Americans — including some 38.1 million children, working-age adults, and seniors — had incomes below the official poverty line and were living “in poverty.”