So You Think You’re Poor?

July 26th, 2010

Can you watch the pictures of the starving poor on television?

Here is the general definition of poverty: “The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country.” In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

The common international poverty line

The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity. Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. This approach is needs-based in that an assessment is made of the minimum expenditure needed to maintain a tolerable life.

In the US

This was the original basis of the poverty line in the US, whose calculation was simplified to be based solely on the cost of food and is updated each year. In developing countries, the most expensive of these resources is typically the cost of housing. Economists thus pay particular attention to the real estate market and housing prices because of their strong influence on the poverty threshold. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted each year.

Television

I was watching a CNN “Inside Africa” program the other evening. It was the end of a long, busy day for me. I filled a bowl of mixed nuts, tore open a packet of potato chips and opened a beer, ice-cold from the fridge which is turned up to maximum for the summer. I settled into my usual position in the deep armchair and jabbed the remote at my 40 inch TV set. There it was in front of me, Africa in brilliant colors.

Africa

Africa, parched and cracking under the searing heat. The children with swollen bellies and their faces covered with flies. Pictures of women walking for miles with a jug or bucket balanced on their heads to fetch the day’s supply of water from a barely trickling river. No electricity, meaning no lights, TV, fridge or computer. No water, meaning no sewerage or waste water system. Schools and hospitals? Probably not. Medicines? What’s that?

Life expectancy

Life expectancy in the top 15 Western countries is over 80. In Lesotho, Sierra Leone Zambia and Swaziland, all African countries, the life expectancy is in the low 40’s. Not much to look forward to when you are in your 20’s, is it? Can you imagine what kind of life you would be living if your income was $1 per day or $365 a year? At that rate of income, even thinking about improving your life must be hopeless. What was that you said about being poor?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 4:32 am and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website