I accuse whoever came up with the idea of measuring income distribution and calling that a measurement of poverty of being dishonest,

I accuse you who perpetuate this argument of having been suckered. :-)

People are NOT rich because they starve to death together.

Nevertheless, it is still true that PPP$ do not accurately reflect subsistence costs, which is the thrust of my original point, as the PPP normalisation includes many goods and services that are not necessary to subsistence.

Sure, but it's the best option we have until somebody actually make a PPP index that is done only to measure poverty. And to be quite honest, regarding how cheap subsistence goods like somewhere to live and food is in the US, I seriously doubt that the US is gonna come out any worse in the comparison...