People mistakenly assume that the World Bank's poverty line ($1.90 PPP per day) represents what an American might be able to buy with $1.90 in poor countries abroad. But in fact the opposite is true: it represents what $1.90 can buy in the US. In other words, virtually nothing.
To put this in perspective, $1.90 can just about buy a loaf of bread in the US, or a can of tuna. To say nothing of actual nutrition, much less shelter, clothing, energy and transportation.
A minimum wage job in the US earns you about $60 per day. So living on $1.90 would be like 30 people trying to survive on a single minimum wage... with no begging, scavenging, or welfare systems to draw on, since all of these are counted as "income" by the World Bank.
The idea that incomes edging above the $1.90 line represent an escape from poverty, "extreme" or otherwise, is closer to Orwellian propaganda, or the delusions of Marie Antoinette, than it is to any empirically grounded conception of human needs.
What does $1.90 PPP mean in local currencies? Download this paper, navigate to table 2.4, and multiply 1.9 by the conversion factor listed in column 16 "individual consumption expenditure by households", which is what the WB uses for its poverty stats. openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2…
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