The Poverty Line

Examples of The Poverty Line in the following topics:

• The Lower Class

  • The lower class in the United States refers to individuals who are at, or near, the lower end of the socioeconomic hierarchy.
  • The poverty line is defined as the income level at which an individual becomes eligible for public assistance.
  • While only about 12% of households fall below the poverty threshold at one point in time, the total percentage of households that will, at some point during the course of a single year, fall below the poverty line, is much higher.
  • Many such households waver above and below the line throughout a single year.
  • Lower class households are at the greatest risk of falling below this poverty line, particularly if a job holder becomes unemployed.

• Poverty

  • Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.
  • The United States officially defines poverty using the poverty line.
  • The poverty line is set at an income level that is three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget.
  • "Near poverty" is the term for an income level that is just above the poverty line; it refers to incomes that are no more than 25% above the poverty line.
  • In the United States, minorities and women are more likely to be living in poverty.

• Poverty

  • Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.
  • The U.S. officially defines poverty using the poverty line, which is the official measure of those whose incomes are less than three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget.
  • Near poverty is when one earns up to 25% above the poverty line; put otherwise, a person near poverty has an income below 125% of the current poverty line.
  • It enables comparisons between the relative wealth and poverty of countries — the higher a country's GNI PPP is, the better off the average person in that country is.
  • Globally, Africa has the highest level of poverty, with the average person earning less than 10% of what the average US citizen earns.

• Mexico's Economy

  • Thus, economic industrialization has not necessarily led to an improved standard of living for a significant portion of the Mexican population, many of whom live in poverty.
  • Poverty in Mexico is characterized as lack of access to basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter.
  • Current figures indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico's population lives below the poverty line as defined by the country's National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation.
  • While causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government's emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country's poorer citizens.
  • Nonetheless, the government's current administration has made attempts to reduce poverty by providing improved education, healthcare, and job opportunities to citizens.

• Age and Income

  • With the introduction of Social Security, the poverty rates of the elderly in the U.S. dropped dramatically, as illustrated in the figure below.
  • Despite the success of the Social Security program in reducing poverty among the elderly, one unforeseen consequence has been the increasing poverty of people under 18.
  • Even so, poverty rates across all three age groups depicted in the figure above have declined from what they were prior to the introduction of tax redistribution policies like Social Security.
  • While generally considered a highly successful program at reducing poverty among the elderly, Social Security is currently experiencing problems.
  • This chart depicts the percentage of the respective age groups that fell below the poverty line over the last 40+ years.

• The Status of Women in Mexico

  • In spite of purported economic growth, both women and men in Mexico have to deal with social stratification, poverty, and unemployment.
  • Poverty can also include a lack of access to social services such as education, healthcare, security, and income.
  • Current statistics indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico's population lives below the poverty line, as defined by the country's National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation.
  • In 2008, 33.7% of the population lived in moderate poverty, and at least 10.5% suffered from extreme poverty.
  • While the causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government's emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country's poorer citizens.

• Relative Deprivation Approach

  • Some scholars explain the rise of social movements by citing the grievances of people who feel that they have been deprived of values to which they are entitled.
  • This leads to an important conclusion: while the objective deprivation (poverty) in the world may change over time, relative deprivation will not, as long as social inequality persists and some humans are better off than others.
  • A specific form of relative deprivation is relative poverty.
  • A measure of relative poverty defines poverty as being below some relative poverty line, such as households who earn less than 20% of the median income.
  • Notice that if everyone's real income in an economy increases, but the income distribution stays the same, the number of people living in relative poverty will not change.

• The Dynamics of Poverty

  • Poverty operates in a dynamic cycle, with the effects of poverty increasing the likelihood that it will be transferred between generations.
  • This perpetuation of deprivation is the cycle of poverty.
  • The basic premise of the poverty cycle the idea that poverty is a dynamic process—its effects may also be its causes.
  • Finally, poverty increases the risk of homelessness.
  • People who are homeless or live in slums have low access to neighborhood resources, high status social contacts, or basic services such as a phone line.

• Measuring Poverty

  • The UN's measure of global poverty based on whether or not a person earns $1.25/day (adjusted for international purchasing power) is a measure of absolute poverty -- it is based on whether or not a person has the bare minimum to meet their material needs.
  • According to the World Bank, definitions of poverty include low income and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity.
  • The World Bank uses this definition of poverty to label extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day.
  • Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income.
  • Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries and are measured according to several different income inequality metrics, including the Gini coefficient and the Theil Index.

• The Feminization of Poverty

  • The feminization of poverty refers to the fact that women represent a disproportionate share of the world's poor.
  • Recent attempts to reduce global poverty have utilized systems of microcredit, which give small loans to poor households in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty.
  • The feminization of poverty describes a phenomenon in which women represent a disproportionate percentage of the world's poor.
  • Lone mother households, or households without a second parent or guardian, are the households with the highest risk of poverty.
  • Increasing health services to women could, therefore, mitigate the feminization of poverty.