Not so Poor but Still Poor

    You're still poor, but now you've got less company. You live in Argentina and your family pockets 900 pesos every month, around $300 greenbacks, so you're a borderline case with one foot in poverty and the other seeking the exit from your humble state.

   It's Thursday and you see a copy of "Clarín" in the trash can. There it is! "Over the past 12 months 2.6 million people have left poverty." But not you. You're still a borderline case, along with 10.3 millon other poor souls. Oh well. At least you're better off than those in the destitute category. That's something, isn't it?

   Then again you might muse on the fact that way back in 2002, in the midst of the Argentine crash, there were 57.7% poor picking their way through life from garbage bags to uplifed palms. You've got to look at the positive side of life, that's what they say. And here it is: now only a fourth of Argentines are poor!

    Meanwhile, the middle and upper classes are doing fine. They are the ones that buy and buy and buy...and move into brand new apartments...and help push up prices, which you end up having to pay. In fact, the middle class has proudly regained its pre-crisis standard of living. Maybe you should just change classes. In this globalized market dominated world it isn't very nice any more to belong to the lower classes.