But leaving people with a very little out in the cold(as the emphasis on "extreme poverty", again a distinction made mainly by bazillionaires)does nothing to ameliorate that.

The real need is to work for a world WITHOUT poverty(and maybe that wouldn't be by white Western standards, which are distorted)but universalism is a crucial part of the approach, because without that you just keep the poor fighting the even-more-poor.

If nothing else, the standards should not be set by the wealthy in the non-impoverished zones. There's no way they can be entitled to judge who has it bad enough to help and who doesn't(which is what the "extreme poverty" paradigm...sorry for the big freakin' word...does. It creates a means test among those with no means at all).