|
DCWoody -> RE: 1 in 5 in absolute poverty in the UK (3/28/2007 9:53:49 AM)
|
Don't have anything to add to this, just thought it was such an accurate summary it needed saying twice......
quote:
ORIGINAL: b12345
The method for computing absolute poverty is misleading. As a statistic it is still dependent on others incomes and therefore to some degree relitive. As used in the study it is far different from say the either the old (income) or new (multi-demensional) world bank messures of poverty, (by most international standards I would assume the UK to have a povery rate of <2% maybe even <1%.)
For the purposes of the the annual figures I assume you are refering to:
-Absolute poverty is defined as being a measure of whether those households on the lowest incomes—less than 60% of the median average income—are seeing their income rise in real terms.
-Relative poverty is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth in incomes in the economy as a whole.
By most international standards things are not nearly as bad as one would think after reading the recent news over there in the UK. Until recently most economists and the world bank measured poverty roughly as having income of less then $1US per day. I doubt many people in the UK certainly not 1 in 5 make less than 185 Pounds a year.
The study realy is more about an increasing wealth gap. People talk about the middle class struggling to make ends meet, and the rich getting richer. IMHO the middle class in countries like the US and UK should take a step back and realize that they are very well off, relitive to the rest of the world or for that matter almost any other period in time. Even the "poor" in countries like the US and UK have a higher standard of living in many respects than the richest royalty of just a couple centuries ago. As far as people being over extedned, a acuantance of mine once was a very successful stock broker and made a fair amount of money, and then drank it all away and lost his job. Then after cleaning up he didn;t make near as much money as before, and complained of being streched thin, and financially unstable, until it occured to him that he could just lower his standard of living and be just as happy. He moved into a cheaper apartment, got a car that was functional, but no more, stopped buying expensive clothing, didn't eat out, and all of the sudden he had no more financial insecurity, and became much happier. People in most 1st world nations are not a risk of failing to meet basic needs, unless it is do to there own foolishmess. Most "middle class" and to a large degree even "poor people's" financial troubles are more or less a result of "trying to keep up with the joneses". If you are concerned with poverty, most of subsaharan Africa, Parts of central and south america, and inland Asia have lots to be found. US, UK, most of Western europe, there is increasing welth disparity, but it can hardly be considered poverty IMHO.
B
|
|
|
|
