[/B]Really? Not saying you are wrong, but where are these extremely poor in the US and why aren't we taking care of them? If we can pay people unemployment for 2 yrs, you'd think we could take of the extremely poor.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.) Understanding Poverty in America | The Heritage Foundation
Oh, yes, in terms of living space, you are fully correct -- that's factual. I'd note, however, that 'living space' and 'personal bubbles' aren't as important to the European psyche as they are to their American countreparts. For example -- Russia has massive amounts of livable land -- more than anywhere else, in fact. And yet, there's the phenomenon of Russians instead buying posh apartments, instead of big country homes. Why? Because of the sense of community. Most Russians have enough money to buy what would be considered a decent to large sized house outside of the cities, but most instead spend their money on nicer, but smaller apartments.
Anyway, you're absolutely right in terms of the living space bit -- but the poor in the US, while their apartments or trailers or houses may be larger than the average poor man's home in Europe, are much more prone to other problems. For example, the poor in the US are (for reasons I certainly can't explain, but there might be studies that explain it) much more likely to be unemployed, and much more likely to be criminal. They're also much more likely to abuse drugs, and they get less average food per year than their poor European countreparts. The American poor are also more likely to die of diseases like the flu, diabetes, terminal illnesses (cancer, AIDS, etc.) and epidemic diseases (like cholera, anthrax, Mad Cow, ecoli, hepatitis). The poor in the US tend to live in isolated high-crime "ghettoes", whereas, with the exception of megatropolises like London and Paris, the European poor tend to be intersparsed among middle class families. The US poor tend to drop out of school at an earlier age than their European countreparts, and as well, the US poor are overall more likely to drop out.
As for where the extremely poor are, that's divided between the rural poor, like in Appalachia, and the urban poor, in inner cities like Los Angeles and Baltimore. Why aren't they being helped? I would probably point to the political gridlock in Washington as a cause.