Across the globe a billion people live on less than a dollar a day; another billion on less than two. This is dire, extreme poverty and it is unconscionable. It will take a global political revolution to end it.

Few Americans live under such terrible conditions. Of course, that does not mean that we have no poverty. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 22% of American children live in poverty. That’s 15.7 million kids. In the City of Los Angeles alone, nearly 100,000 men, women, and children sl...