Highest % of people in poverty in developed world

A devastating story about poverty in America (from overseas, no less):

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population – the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit’s streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.

Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.

This does not even factor in that the federal poverty line is an inadequate measure of what Americans need to earn to be self-sufficient. Here is a good study on what it takes to be self-sufficient in Alabama (Link opens up a PDF file).