Those who live in conditions of poverty lack a wide range of economic and other resources and may be described as "poor" or "impoverished". Some see the term as subjective and comparative, others see it as moral and evaluative, while others consider that it is scientifically established.
Poverty is understood in many senses. The main understandings of the term include:
- Descriptions of material need, typically including the necessities of daily living (food, clothing, shelter, and health care). Poverty in this sense may be understood as the deprivation of essential goods and services.
- Descriptions of social need, including social exclusion, dependency, and the ability to participate in society. This would include education and information.
- Describing a lack of sufficient income and wealth. The meaning of "sufficient" varies widely across the different political and economic parts of the world.
When measured, poverty may be absolute or relative. 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 kilocalories per day). A relative measurement would be to compare the total wealth of the poorest 1/3 of the population with the total wealth of richest 1% of the population.
Uses of the term
Washing clothes in Mumbai
- In economics, conventional discourse focuses on two kinds of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. This is the measure used by the World Bank as discussed below. Relative poverty, for example many national poverty lines, views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. In the this case, the number of people counted as poor could increase while their income rise. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 50% or 60% 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 then accounted for about one third of the total money income. This one-time calculation has since been annually updated for inflation.[1]
- In politics, the fight against poverty is usually regarded as a social goal and many governments have — secondarily at least — some dedicated institutions or departments. Active interventions may include food aid, redevelopment of run-down neighbourhoods, pensions, and targeted job opportunities. Most developed nations also send some aid to developing nations.
- In law, there has been a movement to seek to establish the absence of poverty as a human right.
World poverty
There are varying degrees or levels of poverty.
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.[2]
It is estimated that about 8 million people die each year because they are too poor to survive. [3] Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal.
The Borgen Project points out that while the U.S. government spends over $300 billion dollars a year on military contracts, only $19 billion a year is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of ending severe poverty by 2015. [4]
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. To avoid stigma these nations are usually called developing nations, but this too is considered derogatory by some.
Maps of world poverty can be found at povertymap.net. Although the most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries, this condition results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs and ghettos.
Causes of poverty
Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. No single explanation has gained universal acceptance. The factors that have been alleged to cause poverty include:
- Poverty itself, preventing investment and development
- Geographic factors, for example fertile land and access to natural resources
- Historical factors, for example imperialism and colonialism
- Government corruption
- War, including genocide, democide, and politicide
- Crime
- Inadequate property rights
- Lack of education and skills
- Exploitation of the poor by the rich
- Age discrimination, gender discrimination, racial discrimination
- Lack of functioning democracy
- Matthew effect In social policy it refers to the phenomenon, widely observed across advanced welfare states, that the middle classes tend to be the main beneficiaries of social benefits and services, even if these are primarily targeted at the poor.
- Disease: many tropical nations are affected by diseases like Malaria and Schistosomiasis that are not present in temperate climate
- Mental disease, for example Schizophrenia
- Alcohol abuse and drug abuse
- Inadequate tax systems [5]
- Cultural causes, which attribute poverty to common patterns of life, learned or shared within a community. For example, some have argued that protestantism contributed to economic growth during the industrial revolution
- Individual, or "pathological" causes, behavior or choices of individuals
Eliminating poverty
A group of impoverished Russians butchering a dog for food.
Some responses to poverty are:
- Economic growth.
- The anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank [6] depends heavily on reducing poverty through the promotion of economic growth. However, some consider this approach does not actively or directly work to reduce or eliminate poverty. The World Bank argues that an overview of many studies how that:
- Growth is fundamental for poverty reduction, and in principle growth as such does not seem to affect inequality.
- Growth accompanied by progressive distributional change is better than growth alone.
- High initial inequality is a brake on poverty reduction.
- Poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction; and asset inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates.[7]
- Research on the Index of Economic Freedom suggests that a set of economic conditions which have been termed "economic freedom" help increase growth and reduce poverty.
- Business groups see the reduction of barriers to the creation of new businesses [8], or reducing barriers for existing business, has the effect of bringing more people into the formal economy.
- Donating aid directly to those in need. This has been part of the approach of European societies since the middle ages. For example, the relief of poverty was recognised as a legal charitable purpose by the English Statute of Charitable Uses (Statute of Elizabeth) in 1601.[citation needed]
- Direct government-funded aid to those in need. This has been applied in most Western societies during the 20th century in what became known as the welfare state.
- Responding to individual circumstances. A variety of measures have been taken to change the situation of poor people on an individual basis, through education, employment, social work efforts and other measures.
- Social protection, or provision for contingencies, where categories of people who are most at risk of economic hardship, such as the elderly and people with disabilities, are assisted through the provision of resources or services.
- Strategic intervention, where the poor are encouraged to help themselves, and are supported with focused and specific measures, such as political participation, community organizing, urban regeneration and the development of social capital.
- Affordable housing development to promote stability for the lives of those experiencing poverty.
- A radical change of the economic system. There are several proposals for a fundamental restructuring of existing economic relations, and many of their supporters argue that their ideas would reduce or even eliminate poverty entirely if they were implemented. Such proposals have been put forward by socialism, communism, anarchism, libertarianism and participatory economics, among others.
Most developing countries have produced Poverty Reduction Strategy papers or PRSPs [9].
In addition to broader approaches, the Sachs Report (for the UN Millennium Project) [10] proposes a series of "quick wins", approaches identified by development experts which would cost relatively little but could have a major constructive effect on world poverty. The quick wins are:
- Eliminating school fees.
- Providing soil nutrients to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Free school meals for schoolchildren.
- Supporting breast-feeding.
- Deworming school children in affected areas.
- Training programmes for community health in rural areas.
- Providing mosquito nets.
- Ending user fees for basic health care in developing countries.
- Access to information on sexual and reproductive health.
- Drugs for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
- Upgrading slums, and providing land for public housing.
- Access to electricity, water and sanitation.
- Legislation for women’s rights, including rights to property.
- Action against domestic violence.
- Appointing government scientific advisors in every country.
- Planting trees.
In his book "The End of Poverty", world renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs laid out a lucid plan to eradicate global poverty by the year 2025. Following his doctrine, international organizations such as the Global Solidarity Network are helping end poverty working with governments and partners to help eradicate poverty worldwide with known, proven, reliable, and appropriate interventions in the areas of housing, food, education, basic health, agricultural inputs, safe drinking water, transportation and communications.
Debates about poverty
A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in
Jakarta,
Indonesia shows his find.
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 example the Henderson Poverty Line frequently used in Australia is a relative measurment[11]. Such income based measures also frequently take no account of wealth.
The underlying causes of poverty is a controversial, politicized issue. Those with right wing views may consider that poverty results from personal choices or preferences, the breakdown of "traditional values", lack of birth control, and over-interference by government. They may also look to structural factors that prevent economic growth, such as poorly protected property rights, lacking credit system, crime, and corruption.
Those with more left wing views typically see poverty as the result of many systemic factors unrelated to personal choices or preferences. For instance, they consider that poverty is caused by lack of opportunity (particularly in education), and that it is often the lack of government intervention which results in more poverty. They tend to believe that alleviating poverty is a matter of social justice and that it is the responsibility of the wealthy to help those in need.
The condition in itself is not always considered negatively, even if this is the prevalent interpretation within a given society: some cultural or religious groups consider poverty an ideal condition in which to live, for an example; a condition necessary in order to reach certain spiritual or intellectual states. Poverty in this sense is understood as the lack of material possessions. For some orders this is equivalent to voluntary simplicity: Mother Teresa said that a vow of poverty "frees us from all material possessions". However, a vow of poverty traditionally goes beyond that. The Dominicans "lived a life of voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation of others." (Honorius III, 1217).
There are also several different ways to measure poverty (see income inequality metrics).
See also
Organisations and campaigns
External links
