What does poverty of abundance mean?

Answer 1

This is in reference to the Great Depression. As farmers grew more food to gain more money to cover the deflation of American currency, they decreased the amount that the food was worth to a point where it was no longer profitable to even try and sell it to large cities or they just could not afford it. Large cities were cut off from many crops because there was not enough profit in sending it. Therefore, the more food they planted, the lower the price went, and ultimately food stopped being sent to the big cities.