Who is Poor?

by Lateef Oladeji Internet Marketer Poverty has been defined in different ways and from various perspectives. The various
approaches to poverty include the absolute approach, the relative approach, the welfare index approach and several variants of all of them.

The absolute approach fixes a minimum level of income, falling below which a person or nation is considered poor. The magnitude of the shortfall from the minimum line will determine if it is moderate poverty or abject poverty. A variant of this approach is the US$1.0 per day poverty line that is most commonly used nowadays. Relative poverty considers poverty across persons, nations, industries, regions and the like. By this approach, a person may not be poor in absolute terms but by a comparison with what obtains with others. The welfare index appears more
practical in its approach by considering the access of individuals or bodies to certain essential
items of living such as housing, food, education, health, sanitation, water, etc.

Admittedly, there is no perfect measure or definition of poverty. One gets confused often when some people one considers very rich in the locality answers to 'the masses' appellation. Who is poor, then?

As for me, anybody who cannot afford the minimum quantity of, or have access to, the basic necessities of life is poor. These include adequtely nutritious and quantitatively sufficient
food, decent and uncrowded dwelling in a decent environment, neat clothing, basic health and educational facilities, potable water and efficient means of transportation. What is your own idea
of poverty? Who is poor?

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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