That’s partly because “poor” means “relatively poor” as much as it means “absolutely poor”, and a poor person in a present-day rich society is in at least some ways much better off than a poor person in, say, the society where that statement was originally made.
That’s partly because “poor” means “relatively poor” as much as it means “absolutely poor”, and a poor person in a present-day rich society is in at least some ways much better off than a poor person in, say, the society where that statement was originally made.