Information AboutPoverty |
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Poverty is understood in many senses. P Spicker, S Alvarez Leguizamon, D Gordon,(eds) 2007, Poverty: an international glossary. The main understandings of the term include:
The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," {http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/poverty/voices/ Voices of the Poor} based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include
Most important are those necessary for material well-being, especially food. Others of these issues relate to social rather than material issues. However it should be noted that this text has come in for scathing criticism that argues that it recreates old, highly pejorative and sometimes racialized colonial stereotypes and projects them on to poor people.For instance see the chapter on Voices of the Poor in David Moore's edited book The World Bank: Development, Poverty, Hegemony (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007) Poverty may be defined by a government or organization for legal purposes, see Poverty Threshold . Poverty may be seen as the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and in this sense entire Nation-states are sometimes regarded as poor. A more neutral term is Developing Nation s. Although the most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries examples include Homeless people and Ghetto s. Poverty is also a type of religious promise, a state that may be taken on voluntarily in keeping with practices of piety. In Christianity it is one of the Evangelical Counsels intended to aid the imitation of the example of Christ . MEASURING POVERTY See Also: Measuring poverty .]] .]] , a measure of Income Inequality .]] . The graph shows the 1950-2005 period.]] Frenchman in Paris .]] When measured, poverty may be Absolute or Relative Poverty . Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000-2500 Calorie s per day for an adult male). The World Bank defines '' Extreme Poverty '' as living on less than US$ ( PPP ) 1 per day, and ''moderate poverty'' as less than $2 a day. It has been estimated that in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. The proportion of the Developing World 's population living in extreme economic poverty has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Much of the improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa GDP/capita shrank with 14 percent and extreme poverty increased from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001. Other regions have seen little or no change. In the early 1990s the transition economies of Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income. Poverty rates rose to 6 percent at the end of the decade before beginning to recede. [http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html Worldbank.org reference] There are various criticisms of these measurements. Institute of Social Analysis Other indicators are also improving. s) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Between 1950 and 1999, Global Literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: Female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000. The percentage of children not in the labor force has also risen to over 90% in 2000 from 76% in 1960. There are similar trends for electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as the proportion of the population with access to clean water. World Development Volume 33, Issue 1 , January 2005, Pages 1-19, Why Are We Worried About Income? Nearly Everything that Matters is Converging Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on Social Context . In this case, the number of people counted as poor could increase while their income rise. A relative measurement would be to compare the total wealth of the poorest one-third of the population with the total wealth of richest 1% of the population. There are several different Income Inequality Metrics . One example is the Gini Coefficient . In many developed countries the official definition of poverty used for statistical purposes is based on relative income. As such many critics argue that poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. For instance, according to the Heritage Foundation,a right wing think tank, 46% of "those" in "poverty" in the U.S. own their own home (with the average poor person's home having three bedrooms, with one and a half baths, and a garage). Home ownership in this context does not necessarilly mean someone has paid for the house; it merely means that they have been given the credit to make monthly payments on it.Rector, Robert E. and Johnson, Kirk A., ''Understanding Poverty in America'' Executive Summary, Heritage Foundation, January 15, 2004 No. 1713 Furthermore, the measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth, or Net Worth . The main Poverty Line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 50% of the median household income. The US poverty line is more arbitrary. It was created in 1963-64 and was based on the dollar costs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "economy food plan" multiplied by a factor of three. The multiplier was based on research showing that food costs in low-income households then accounted for about one-third of the total money income. This one-time calculation has since been annually updated for inflation in food costs. US Department of Human Services -FAQ Poverty Guidelines and Poverty Income Inequality for the world as a whole is increasing. Currently, 1% of the world's population get 80% of the world's income. A 2002 study by Xavier Sala-i-Martin finds that this is driven mainly, but not fully, by the extraordinary growth rate of the incomes of the 1.2 billion Chinese citizens. However, unless Africa achieves economic growth, then China, India, the OECD and the rest of middle-income and rich countries will diverge away from it, and global inequality will rise. Thus, the economic growth of the African continent should be the priority of anyone concerned with increasing global income inequality. Global Inequality Fades as the Global Economy Grows 2007 Index of Economic Freedom. Xavier Sala-i-Martin] The Disturbing "Rise" of Global Income Inequality by Xavier Sala-i-Martin. 2001 Even if poverty may be lessening for the world as a whole, it continues to be an enormous problem:
CAUSES OF POVERTY Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. However, no single explanation has gained universal acceptance. Some possible factors include:
EFFECTS OF POVERTY of the late 1960s. The abdomen is paradoxically swollen due to Kwashiorkor or severe protein malnutrition.]] Some effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a " Poverty Cycle " and complicating the subject further: |
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