“I used to think I was poor,” says one comedian. “Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self‑defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh, not deprived but rather underprivileged.) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged.

“I still don’t have a dime,” this comedian concludes, “But I have a great vocabulary.” Maybe that comedian was laughing to keep from crying, because whatever you may call it, being poor isn’t any fun.

“There was a rich man,” said Jesus, “who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the …