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The article discusses poverty in Latin America. All but a wretched pair (Haiti and Nicaragua) of Latin American countries are officially classed as "middle-income" and all (except Cuba) are democracies. Yet Latin America has another trait: a hugely unequal distribution of income and wealth. A disproportionately large number of Latin Americans are poor. The region's democratic governments have started to make innovative efforts to tackle poverty. These center on programs that offer poor families cash payments on condition, for example, that they keep their children in school and take them for regular health check-ups. In Mexico, 5 million families now get such payments, and 7.5 million in Brazil.

Presents information on the number of poor people in the United States for October of 1998. Reduction in the number below the poverty line; No year-to-year change in overall income inequality; Fewer blacks and Hispanics among the nation's poor; Comments from Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation on the state of the US poor.