“You can’t understand the new poverty using Engel’s coefficient,” I answered coldly. “The percentage a poor family spends on food today is quite small. They can buy cheap processed foods; for instance, with the catchphrase Geiz ist geil (stinginess is cool) ringing in your ears, you can buy meals to heat up in the microwave for only one euro. “They’ll definitely make you sick if you eat them every day, but they don’t let that bother them. That’s what it means to be poor now.”
