Poverty is what? The poverty level. Absolute and relative poverty

Why am I poor? This question is asked every day by hundreds of thousands of people on the planet. They try to buy the minimum things they need, but even they often lack a scanty salary or pension. Poverty is a web, it's difficult to break out of. But it's absolutely real. The main thing is to collect the will into a fist and act. Do not sit still, do not cry and do not put up with the sad state of things. Any life changes give at least a chance to end an unenviable social position, in contrast to complete apathy, lack of initiative and passivity.

Poverty as a social phenomenon

This is an extreme shortage of funds and resources necessary for the existence that satisfy the vital needs of the individual, the whole family, society and the state. For example, in the modern world it is customary that every individual in the house has basic things: a TV, a kitchen stove, a table, a bed and so on. Their absence or inability to buy makes a person a beggar in the eyes of others. Of course, he does not yet stand on the porch, because he earns and tries to lead a normal life. But the money that a person receives at the plant or plant is sorely lacking, and he can barely make ends meet.

Poverty is the insufficiency of property values, financial opportunities, goods for a full-fledged existence. If you look at a more global scale, it is the inability to live, to continue the family, to develop. Extremely poor people do not even have the means to buy bread, so they go out for begging.

Absolute poverty

By this concept is meant the impossibility of man to lead a normal way of life. Absolute poverty is the impossibility of satisfying even the basic needs for food and food, clothing and warmth. Such an individual buys only the minimum of products that can support his life activity. Usually he does not pay utility bills and refuses to purchase personal items. Determining this kind of poverty can be done by comparing the living wage and the ability to provide it with everything necessary. If the gap is very significant, economists speak of a phenomenon such as the poverty threshold - the absence of a decent lifestyle for society, the inability to maintain the stereotypes imposed by the era and the departure from the usual standards.

The World Bank has calculated where such a line is. According to experts, the poverty line is the existence of less than 1.25 US dollars a day. But this does not take into account households, which are quite a bit higher than this threshold. Therefore, a situation arises where inequality and need in the country grow, while the number of people who are beyond the poverty threshold is decreasing.

Relative poverty

Sometimes people think of themselves as beggars, not because they lack something essential, but because their income is much lower than that of acquaintances, neighbors, relatives. Relative poverty is an indicator of how much you do not fit into the framework set by the surrounding people. For example, your circle of acquaintances is fairly well-off: a sister with her husband rests on the Canary Islands, a friend goes shopping in Paris. Instead, you can spend your holidays only in the native Crimea. Of course, comparing yourself with your friends, you call your family poor. But if you think about it, other people can not afford even a trip to a sanatorium outside the city, so considering yourself a beggar in such a situation is unfair.

In short, relative poverty is a mismatch with the standards of decent life that surround you. Often, it tries on the income of the population: if they grow, and the distribution of funds remains the same, then this type of need is a constant.

Townsend's concept

He viewed poverty as a condition in which the life-pleasures of a person are fading into the background or become inaccessible. Due to the circumstances (loss of work, lack of financial resources), he experiences hardships that change his usual way of life. For example, an entrepreneur travels to the office on his own machine. But in the country there has come an economic crisis, the prices for gasoline have skyrocketed upwards, and the salary at the population has remained former. Because of this, a person must abandon the car in favor of a cheaper ride in the metro. This does not mean that he became a beggar, rather, temporarily restrained in cash.

Townsend argues that relative poverty is income below the level at which most of society continues to be. The analyst in his works often used the notion of multidimensional deprivation, which meant the disadvantage of the individual or his family against the background of the general mass of people. It can be material, which is characterized by such indicators as clothing, food, living and working conditions, as well as social - this is the essence of employment, the level of education, ways of spending leisure.

Two directions of the concept

The poverty level is a concept rather abstract, not having a clear framework or boundaries. Therefore, Townsend's concept defines it in a narrower and broader sense. First, according to the analyst, when assessing the level of need, you need to focus on the analysis of the availability of funds for the purchase of goods for normal life. This takes into account the indicator of personal (median) income that a person has. Thus, in Scandinavia the relative poverty threshold corresponds to 60% of material resources, in Europe - 50%, in the USA - 40%.

Secondly, relative need is considered on a more global scale. In this case, take into account the possibility of fully participating in the life of society, relying on available resources. Interestingly, absolute poverty is a deeper concept. Its range does not coincide with the relative one. The first can be eliminated, the second will always be present, since inequality in society is an ineradicable and eternal phenomenon. About relative poverty can be said even in the case when all citizens of the country suddenly become millionaires.

The deprivational approach

It is based not on the amount of money, resources and income, but on the level of human consumption of certain goods and services. In this case, the poverty line is a situation in a society where an individual does not have access to some things, so eventually he buys their cheaper counterparts. For example, the girl Anya wants a mobile phone. On a brand new fashionable touchscreen, she has no money, but the stock that she keeps in her personal piggy bank allows her to become the owner of a fairly good button device.

The deprivational approach also implies the refusal of the population from some services and purchases because of a small income. Thus, a person buys less goods in the supermarket, refuses the services of hairdressers, walks to work. Here, the main emphasis is on consumption. But to determine the poverty threshold at the same time is quite difficult: the population can have good financial reserves, but for some time to abandon expensive goods, given the seasonality of a purchase.

Causes of poverty

There can be a lot of them. Sometimes people are not able to influence the circumstances that pushed them beyond the line of need. In other cases, they are themselves to blame for the circumstances. The reasons for poverty can be grouped together:

1. Economic - low wages, unemployment, a crisis in the country, monetary devaluation.
2. Political - war, forced migration.
3. Socio-medical - old age, disability, high incidence in the state.
4. Demographic - an incomplete family, the presence of children, dependents.
5. Qualification - limited knowledge and skills, inaccessibility of education and its low level.
6. Geographical - the presence of depressed regions, their uneven development.
7. Personal - alcoholism, a passion for drugs, dependence on gambling.

Whatever the causes of poverty, the main thing is to remember that you can get out of a difficult situation. The one who says "Poverty is vice" is mistaken. No, it's not worth it to be ashamed of. Need is a temporary phenomenon, you can always influence it with a huge desire.

Explanations of the causes of poverty

There are two approaches that compare poverty to a social phenomenon in society:

• Cultural explanations. Adherents of this theory say that in the poor people's society some behavior is formed: fatalism, decline of spirit, humility, disappointment. Instead of acting, people consider themselves doomed, they start drinking or begging. In this case, poverty is a kind of hereditary disease transmitted at the gene level. Experts advise to cancel state benefits, pensions and benefits for such a population, in order to encourage him to seek work and the slightest initiative.
• Structural explanations. Based on this theory, analysts say that poverty occurs when the state is experiencing an economic downturn. The uneven distribution of material wealth among the population in these periods is particularly acute. They also pay attention to changes in the structure of the international labor market. For example, in the country, low wages are artificially kept to attract more investment.

In addition to the above reasons, poverty can also arise due to other circumstances specific to a particular person, his way of life and the policies of the state in which he lives.

What does poverty lead to?

There are also two interesting theories, the adherents of which look at this social problem in different ways and offer diametrically opposite ways of eliminating it. Representatives of the first consider poverty a positive phenomenon. Analysts say that it becomes a factor that pushes people to action, forcing them to improve themselves and their skills, to give out new ideas. As a result, the society is developing, working, the economic situation of the state is improving. This theory, called the Darwinian theory, is supported by the liberals.

Another trend is called equalizing. His followers believe that poverty is evil. In their view, poverty will not compel a person to work more to provide for themselves with everything necessary. On the contrary, it will lead to the fact that it will simply roll to the very bottom of society. Analysts are sure: in order to avoid the complete degradation of an individual who becomes desperate and uninvolved due to the constraining needs, it is necessary to split equally the existing resources and means among all citizens in the country.

Negative consequences

The poverty level is the catalyst that determines the atmosphere in the entire state. Agree, if people suffer from poverty, there is tension in society, the number of crimes increases. Having lowered his hands from despair, a person steals from the state, starts illegally earning, evades taxes, takes bribes to support his family. Sometimes he even goes on a more serious crime: murder for profit, robbery, theft. A society suffering from poverty often suffers from unsanitary conditions. It is characterized by very high mortality and the risk of epidemics.

Especially tragic is hereditary poverty. After all, among beggars often born gifted babies, able in the future to create a cure for cancer, to invent a flying car or to come up with a way to combat global warming. But this will never happen: the lack of finance and resources leads to the fact that the child can not get a normal education and become a new Einstein. He also believes from the childhood that all his attempts to change his life are zero, so he is silently reconciled to circumstances and robbed of his talents.

The scale of poverty

The citizens of the African republics, the states of Asia, and some powers of Eastern Europe suffer the most. Experts in 2014 ranked the most impoverished countries, given the poverty gap - this is the difference in income between different segments of the population, their ratio. We also paid attention to such criteria as the degree of development of the economy, the standard of living and freedom, and sovereignty. As a result, Egypt, Zambia, India, Senegal, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana, Algeria, Nepal, Bosnia, Honduras, Guatemala were the most destitute.

At the same time, people in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Finland and Luxembourg live as well as possible. The United States ranked only 11th in the ranking of the most successful countries, Russia - 32, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia - 45, 48 and 49, Belarus - 56, Ukraine - 68. This list shows how badly or well the population of a state. But it will always change if we evaluate other indicators, such as the level of education, the quality of health care, and the possibility of employment.