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Um, it's my understanding that when measuring income and determining poverty levels, the cost of living is a part of the calculation.
Also, we're talking about a lot of people here. The top 20% vs. the bottom 20% means a lot of people. This includes urban and rural dwellers. If you start parsing it by considering that some pay as much as $1,000 per month on transportation, you start splitting hairs. If you're paying $1,000 per month for transportation, you are likely plugged into a metropolis with many high paying jobs. If you're paying $1,000 per month on transpiration, you're earning an income that allows you to pay $12,000 on transportation per year and still make a living, otherwise you wouldn't have that job. And the idea of paying $1,000 per month on transpiration would probably shock those who earn $2 per day. The poverty point in China is set at $1.25 per day by the World Bank. But I don't think it matters, I doubt there are many people who can find a way to pay $1,000 per month on transportation unless they really wanted to.
What are you trying to get at, exactly? Tomato sauce is probably the worst measure you've considered.
Are you trying to say that things are better in China than in the U.S.? Should the U.S. adopt a more socialistic/communist system? Or are you saying simply that the average U.S. citizen is as oppressed as the average Chinese citizen?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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