Anthony Said:

How could the wealthiest nation in the world have the highest poverty rate of all industrialised countries?

We Answered:

Your statistics are mildly interesting. However, they would be more meaningful if they were a comparison of of the same categories of say, 40 years ago, a measure of CHANGE and the progress being made.. For instance, you use the word "poverty" repeatedly. Over the last 40 years, the definition of "poverty" has been re-defined (upwardly) at least 3 times. 40 years ago people in "poverty" did not have (approximately) : color TV sets, separate living quarters, subsidized medicines, subsidized health care, free emergency health care, free food stamps, free dental care, subsidized transportation, Free, for children: sports, sports equipment, student lunch programs, Xmas toys, donated clothing, etc. No, Dr. Pangloss, we do not live in the most perfect of all perfect worlds (nation)
As a youth in the 1930s I observed many people I knew, repeatedly buying dog food (4 cents per 10 oz. can) - and they DIDN'T own pets. Guess who the food was for?
The "American Dream", does it still exist? You betcha. At least thousands and thousands (millions?) of non-Americans think so. Every day the news stories indicate that they are somehow (legally and illegally) gaining entrance into our country to find it. To realize it. To live it
A relatively unmeasurable fact is American (upward) mobility, the "rags (poverty) to riches" experiences that that many of us have either observed or experienced.
P.S. I am a first generation (born) American. My great-great grandfather was a slave.