What's 'poor' and 'not poor' in VN?

Packed with hungry customers, a few of us enters a local Com Binh Dan (the common people's rice) place to have a grab some lunch.  We sat near an middle aged man who appeared to eating briskly through his rice and soup. After recognizing that he finished his meal, we quickly turn to him to ask him a few questions about what is consider poor and 'not poor' in Vietnamese society.  

He told us that he looked at the question in term of economic prosperity more or less than possession.  He also accounts that development is a huge factor into determining who's poor and 'not poor'.  It was quite interesting to hear him deliberate his answer in terms of the well-off people are those who actually save the money they earn.  Whereas the poor are those who does not learn to save the money they earn but spend them reckless.  He describe some feature of the the poor as those has to work very hard and has difficulty finding a meal.  I was bit a taken back by his replies in the first part because he said it as though the poor cannot save for some apparent reason.  What about those who are born into harsh poverty and work so much to help support their family?  Maybe there was some miscommunication or misunderstanding from his answer but I initially think that possession/material goods help distinguish this fine line of people.

When he answers the second question, he mentions that the gap has drastically increase between the poor and 'not poor' over the past 10 years due to development.  He believes that improving economy causes this widen gap between the poor and 'not rich'.  These two group slowly but surely are living separately from each other not like before when they used to live in the same neighborhood.  He predicts in the next ten years, Vietnam will become a capitalist state and a free market where people will have more freedom in the government.  The consequences of this change in the future will be the poor will stay poor and the rich will become richer.  I was not surprise at his answer about how Vietnam will changed into a capitalist state. I think some people has this grand image of the U.S. as prosperous nation which makes them want to get to that point of  "development".