In the US "poverty" now includes access to netflix. Poverty has absolutely gotten better in the US over the years.

US poverty isn't some controversial idea to be scare-quoted and dismissed as no big deal. 1 in 6 of our kids don't have enough to eat. Sheesh.

Actually, about 1 percent of children in the United States suffer from chronic malnutrition. And malnutrition occurs in people who are either undernourished or overnourished. In the United States, more children suffer from malnutrition due to dietary imbalances than due to nutritional deficiencies.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/adu...

The 1 in 6 figure is for "food insecurity." I'm sure "chronic malnutrition" is a worse condition.

Poverty also includes having your neighborhood torn apart by junkies on opioids.

But I guess actually looking at the econometric data to compare apples to apples isn't worthwhile because you can stay indoors while your tires are stolen and watch Jessica Jones, so things are better than they used to be, right?

Yes things are better than they used to be. People living in bad neighborhoods spending time and money on entertainment need to prioritize better.

Companies spend billions of dollars in emotionally manipulative marketing campaigns in order to convince them not to prioritize better.

So are you saying that people need protection from themselves because they're too stupid to realize that they're being manipulated?

Toys being abundant and cheaply available didn’t fix poverty.

Since the parent was commenting a quote about "billions of poorer people across the world have seen their wealth standstill or decline", it is rather obvious that the Guardian was commenting not on US poverty but global poverty.

And was really wrong about it.