Poverty may also be defined in relative terms. In this view or wealth disparities are seen as an indicator of poverty and the condition of poverty is linked to questions of scarcity and distribution of resources and power.
Poverty may be defined by a government or organization for legal purposes, see .
Poverty may be seen as the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and in this sense entire are sometimes regarded as poor. A more neutral term is . Although the most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries examples include people and ”.( )
Poverty is often defined in terms of a person's income or the amount of goods they are able to consume. For example, the World Bank has set the international poverty line at an expenditure level of $1 for every person a day.2 This figure represents the minimal amount on which a person can fulfil his or her physical needs, and a person is considered to be living in "absolute poverty" if his or her income falls below this line. By this measure, at the present time about 1.2 billion people are living in absolute poverty in developing and transition economies. The poverty line is calculated using "purchasing power parities," which take into account difference in prices in goods in different countries, and so allows poverty levels to be compared internationally.
The poverty line is the level of income below which one cannot afford to purchase all the resources one requires to live. People who have an income below the poverty line have no discretionary disposable income, by definition.
“Absolute poverty is where people lack the necessary food, clothing, or shelter to survive, can be distinguished from relative poverty, which has been defined as the inability of a citizen to participate fully in economic terms in the society in which he or she lives. In many countries, absolute poverty is common and persistent, being reflected in poor nutrition, short life expectancy, and high levels of infant mortality. It may result from a country's complete lack of resources, or from unequal distribution of wealth.”
Absolute poverty is also defined a living on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less. In 2002, 43% of the world population lived on this little. This money has to cover the basic of food , shelter and water, medicines, new cloting, and school books would not be on the priority list.
When almost am entire population lives on this little, its is unsuprising if undernoishment is high, education levels are low and life expentancy short.
An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body, eg the calorie intake.
When the calculates its "$1 a day" statistics, it uses a poverty threshold.
Now Poverty thresholds can be defined in different ways but one of it is:
“ benefit based. If a guarantees to make income up to some particular level then it may be presumed that that level is the poverty threshold. This is a problematic definition, because an uncharitable government may reduce the guaranteed income, thus reducing the incidence of poverty so defined while increasing the incidence of actual poverty.” ()
Relative deprivation is the “experience of being deprived of something to which one thinks he is entitled to (Walker & Smith 2001). It is a term used in to describe feelings or measures of , , or deprivation that are relative rather than absolute.(Bayertz 1999).
It has important consequences for both and , including of , , and participation in .” ()
Relative deprivation also refers to the discontent people feel when they compare their positions to those of other similarly situated and find out that they have less than they deserve.
“One of the first formal definitions of the relative deprivation, noted that there are four preconditions of relative deprivation (Runciman 1966) (of object X by person A) :”( )
- A does not have X
- A knows of other persons that have X
- A wants to have X
- A believes obtaining X is realistic
CONCLUSION:
Any attempt to measure poverty by drawing a simple line without a reference to social standards or factors other than income is fatally flawed. Rowntree also talk about the necessity basket, which is what people want but they don’t need and what people need but they don’t have. People's perceptions of poverty tend to change as countries get richer: in this sense the definition of poverty will always depend on what people, in a particular society, at a particular point in time, perceive as poor. This debate has particular relevance for already developed countries such as the United Kingdom.
