Median world income is about $2 per person per day.
If you’re making more than half the world’s population, you’re not poor.
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That is a meaningless figure. You and I both know that the equivalent of $2. per day in America will not keep a person alive, you cannot buy enough food to sustain life with that, let alone have clothing and shelter. It reminds me of the show on TV a number of years ago about Mexicans working in American owned factories in Mexico for a few cents an hour. The funny part is they showed these same women out dancing at night wearing decent clothes, makeup, hair nicely done. It just didn’t add up, the figure quoted would not have put food in their bellies here. They are not accounting for the exchange rate.
You've bought the lie hook-line-and-sinker.
$1 per meal is trivially easy to achieve. With some effort, that can be reduced to $0.33 per meal.
Clothing and shelter are similarly cheap - if you actually THINK about the purchase process, put some legwork & elbow grease into it, stay away from absurdly priced markets, and (here's the kicker) if the government doesn't pile on so many taxes & regulations. There are towns that will GIVE you land if you'll just build a house on it within 2-5 years; that's not hard to do if you cut your expenses and get creative. (Heck, I'd like to hire a live-in housekeeper paid partly in free room & board - if only the government wouldn't pile such onerous restrictions on doing so.)
Americans have hugely bought into a kingly culture. We can live on a LOT less. $2/day is the world median, and it's not that absurd - so long as you don't live a plush lifestyle in hugely expensive areas. (And now I must go call a friend on my cell phone, jump into my SUV, burn several dollars in gas, and go to my rediculously comfortable 2500 sq ft home ... I know I can live _very_ cheaply, but will certainly take advantage of any opportunity to live better.)