The irony is that most of those in the third world consider (quite rightly) ‘poor’ to be an insult. I pay my full time employee about $7.50 per day (includes health care and retirement). With this income, he supports his family of four in a two bedroom house with electricity (costing $3/month) a TV, refrigerator, and lights. His kids do well in a school that they can walk to. He would be insulted if he was offered charity.
I’d originally offered the job to my next door neighbor who doesn’t even have indoor plumbing or electricity. But he has fields of cane, a sugar mill, and livestock he tends, and he’s not interested in socialized medicine. He is willing to help me out when I have problems, and I reciprocate when the opportunity arises.
I enjoy doing volunteer community service work here for such self reliant people. But I get real pissed when the ‘poor’ in the states want to raise my taxes because they can’t seem to make it without my help.