Why Is It so Difficult to Define Poverty free essay sample

Why is so difficult to define poverty In general, the term poverty refers to a social and economic condition which is undesirable for any individual or group in society. This essay will discuss different approaches used to define poverty. First is absolute poverty, this approach looks at the lack of income in order to satisfy the essential requirement for physiological survival. It then goes on to discuss the relative approach which is lack of income in order to reach the average standard of living in society in which one live. This essay also addresses the consensual approach this is based on the lack of socially perceived necessities, it also incorporate an income measure to the extent that it is used along with deprivation. It also look at social exclusion which describe the lack of access to basic service whether in the home or outside, the different ways through non-participation in common social activities, isolation, and discrimination. Absolute poverty is define as not having the basic means to live adequately, it also measure a set poverty line. The problem and limitation of defining poverty by use of poverty are many. It has encouraged a tendency to define poverty at an extremely low level of income necessary to ensure physical survival. An absolute measure of poverty will remain the same regard of the social circumstance is an impossibility. Even the attempt to calculate absolute nutrition requirement for substance (for example: the poverty line which the USA is base on a dollar a day) fails once we appreciate that even necessary minimum levels of nutrition will vary with such changeable factor as life expectancy. Such measure are even less realistic when consider the need for clothing or shelter, for what we consider necessary minimum can never be fixed absolutely. Other concepts of absolute poverty go beyond the notion of substance and materials poverty by introducing the idea of ‘basic cultural needs’. This broadens the idea of basic human needs beyond the level of physical survival. The life style of the poor differs in certain respects from other members of society, although life styles in different societies share common characteristics. The circumstances of poverty are similar, in many respects, where similar circumstances and problems tend to produce similar responses, and these responses can develop into a culture, that is learn, shared, and socially transmitted behaviour of a social group. Cultures are develops to give people a guide as to how they should behave, and cope with their surroundings. Cultures are always changing; however, the broad outlines are passed on from one generation to another by parents and others who influence people when they are young. Even those who support an absolute definition of poverty tend to relate necessities to their own society, for example, even Rowntree accepted that the choice of food to make up a person’s diet was related to the cultural expectations of food in a society, not just any mixture of vitamins, calories, ect (Stephen Moore, 2002). However, most politicians have adopt a relative approach to poverty, to argue that poverty can never be defined or measured in absolute terms, but always relative to the society in which it occurs. This approach has also encouraged a wider imprecation of the standards against which poverty is measured, that it is not enough simply to measure the minimum requirement for food, clothing, and shelter in any given society at any given point in time. Another definition of poverty is relative poverty. This measurement of poverty is based on working out the income needed to attain an accepted standard of living in a society. Relative deprivation occurs when people cannot obtain, the basic amenities and services which allow them to play their role, participate, and follow expected customary behaviour in their society. In a rapidly changing world, definition of poverty based on relative standards will be constantly changing. In Western society, products and services such as hot and cold running water, refrigerators and washing machines, medical and dental care, fulltime education and motor cars have or are travelling the road from luxuries, to comforts to necessaries because any definition of poverty must be related to the needs and demands of a changing society. It is necessary to discuss poverty in terms of life styles, although it is not sufficient to see poverty as lack of material possessions and facilities necessary for material well-being. Poverty also exists where members of society are excluded from the life style in the community to which they belong. Peter Townsend, pioneer of modern poverty research, devised a scale to determine the minimum necessities for maintenance of merely physical efficiency. Those whose income falls well below this minimum level were said to be in poverty. Anyone with an income of less than a certain amount a week would be considered impoverished and consuming goods less than a monetary value would also be classed as being poor. To view poverty primarily in material and most often monetary terms is un-measurable, because poverty is not just a lack of material goods; it is also a matter of social relationship in the way the poor are treated by those around them. Often those are other in position of authority and power in their dealings with the poor; they may treat the poor with sympathy, with condescension, with difference, with suspicion, or with hostility. To be poor is usually to have little or no influence over how you are treated, such experience cannot be reduced to or measure by a poverty line. The two strong arguments against this definition are, if we go beyond the biological necessities, who is to say what should count as something which everyone ought to have? Secondly is, if income support is used as the measure of poverty, the absurd situation occurs that the higher the level of income support the more people counted who are in poverty. Generally, its disputes like these, on the issue of poverty that reinforce the point that there is no agreement over what the term poverty should mean. Next is the consensual approach, or method which is used when measuring deprivation. It is a simple and straight forward way of getting information on people’s standard of living. This method was first devised in 1985 for the television program Breadline Britain. This approach has been tried and tested in Britain and other country and shown to produce reliable and repeatable result. By directly measuring standard of living it will be possible to identify the numbers of people suffering from material deprivation, social deprivation and social exclusion. Those who are excluded because of financial constraints, lack of services or lack of other resources can be distinguished from those who exclude themselves out of choice. A good success measure is needed to be able to distinguish constraint from choice if cost efficient polices to alleviate poverty and social exclusions are to be developed and maintained. An approach to alleviating poverty is promoting efficient and sustainable growth, tackling unemployment, evaluating efforts to develop the poorest human resources and expansion and diversification of economic activities in rural areas. Then the quality of live will improve. The realistic and appropriate target would be, not only to eliminate relative poverty, but to raise the level of welfare of the poorest citizens. Finally is social exclusion, this is a new term used by the government when discussing poverty. Social exclusion is a process where by individuals are pushed to the edge of society and prevented from participating fully by virtue of their poverty, lack of basic need, and life long learning opportunities or as a result of discrimination. This distances them from job, having an income, and education opportunities as well as social and community activities. They have little access to decision making and often feel power less and unable to take control over the decisions that effect their live day to day social exclusion is underlain by dynamics, a consideration of the future as well as the present. People and their family are excluded not just because they have low income or no job, but because they have little prospect of improving their situation. For these reason, social exclusion cannot be measured only by looking at income levels and cannot be summarised by figure in the same way that poverty line can. Understanding the need of poverty understands the human need. How needs are understood is critical both to absolute and relative poverty, It is said that Townsend’s argues that even physiological needs, such as nutrition, cannot be divorced from social, historical and cultural context. Defining poverty as a necessity item, such as a refrigerator, washing machine, telephone and, activities such as celebrations on special occasion, visiting friends of family or leisure pastime not being able to afford these items classed as poverty. Rowntree did not, himself, believe that only those living in substance primary poverty were poor. However, he used this standard as a device to convince the wider society that a significant number of those in poverty could not meet their basic physical, never mind their social needs. Therefore the life-style of the poor was at least in part caused by low income and not by improvidence as was widely believed. In conclusion we have looked at different approaches to poverty, and argued that it is crucial to consider poverty in relation to standards of the rest of society. to do with out the things that the rest of society regards as essential, such as a fridge, washing machine, or being able to give birthday present, is to experience real poverty. We have seen how difficult it is to define poverty and that there are important consequences in terms of policy of the difference definitions and explanations. Poverty does not strike randomly across the population, some group are much more likely to be in poverty than others. There is no one set measure for poverty with the different definitions and explanations in terms of inability to participate in society, absolute, relative, consensual, standard of living, different suggestions and policies have been implemented to combat and eliminate poverty which shows that there is no one set measure that gives a complete definition of poverty.