Why are capital gains not counted in a poverty status calculation? So according to the US census office capital gains are not included when trying to figure out if a household is living in poverty. Does this mean if I have one billion dollars in index funds that I am living off of am I in poverty(at least by this definition)?

I am I understanding this correctly? Is this considered a fault in the poverty status measurements? If this is an oversight is there some political reason for it?

Thanks in advance!
Most Exchange Traded Funds of stocks or bonds have an associated income (even those which reinvest or accumulate this income)

For example Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has a dividend yield of $1.81\%$.  So multiplying by $\$10,000,000,000$, this would give an annual income of about $\$18,100,000$, a little above income poverty levels

On the other hand, people with a large amount of physical cash or gold coins and no income, and using some of this for living expenses, would count as being in income poverty, no matter how high their wealth.  But there are relatively few people like this