Poverty is mostly relative. Sure let's say a poor American has 12 dollars to his name, lives in a fukked up neighbourhood, no job, hardly any education. He's still, all things considered, "better off" than some random breh in a remote village in a poor country that has to walk 3 hours to get water, no eletricity, no formal education, can't read. That doesn't mean that he isn't poor himself, because IN AMERICA, where it matters TO HIM, he's poor compared to the standard of the country he's in. Works the other way too : any breh working for minimum wage or getting unemployment benefits is "rich" by most poor countries standards, if you only consider how much money he's getting, out of context. Only problem is that he doesn't live there, but in a rich country.
You have to compare what's comparable. And even so, there are very real pockets of poverty in the US (if I'm to believe various documentaries I've seen) as well as in other western countries.