When I read about people who want to eradicate poverty, particularly in affluent western countries, and then they refer to the numbers of people living below the poverty line, I have to wonder if they really understand how the poverty line is drawn. A "war on poverty" is like a football game where the goal line keeps getting moved. One can never win, but one can sure make a career of it.

This does not, by the way, mean that I am unsympathetic to people who cannot feed their families. I am simply averse to stupid meaningless slogans.