More handpicked essays just for you.
The difference between absolute, relative, and subjective poverty
What is the difference between relative absolute and subjective poverty
What is absolute,relative,subjective poverty
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Question1: Discuss the differences between a relative and an absolute definition of poverty. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Absolute poverty uses a dollar value that is firmly set to determine who is poor while relative poverty uses comparisons to determine who is poor. An example of absolute poverty is how the federal and state governments in the United States create a poverty threshold, an absolute measure, which is used for administrative purposes, specifically to determine eligibility for income support programs for the poor. Absolute poverty is beneficial because it creates a definite cutoff, there is a clear definition of who is and who is not poor, regardless of their needs or personal circumstances. However, a
…show more content…
drawback to absolute poverty, such as the poverty threshold, is that it only takes income into account and does not include benefits such as medical care of food vouchers. There is also discrepancy over the poverty threshold because it is based on a minimum amount needed for survival rather than a balanced way of life. This is why some people would prefer to use relative poverty, especially in rich nations where the poor are not typically faced with starvation and death. Relative poverty is beneficial because it focuses on including people into society and providing them the means to better meet social norms and standards. Assisting people in meeting these standards will help them to avoid the personal costs of poverty, such as inadequate health and low educational achievement. Contrastingly, a disadvantage to relative poverty would be that it is a subjective measure and involves too many factors for the assistance to ever be viewed as equal among clients. Question 3: What is meant by the juvenilization of poverty?
The feminization of poverty? Why is it important to understand these concepts?
The juvenilization of poverty describes the tendency for children to be disproportionately represented in the ranks of those who are poor, and the feminization of poverty refers to the fact that poverty is more likely to happen to women than to men. These are both important concepts to understand because they share a positive
…show more content…
correlation. Question 4: Discuss the distribution of income across households in the United States. Is income evenly distributed? What are some of the consequences of the current income distribution? Income is not evenly distributed across households in the United States. Over the past several decades the separation between those at the top and those at the bottom has greatly increased as people in the top fifth of the income scale account for more than half of all household income, and those in the bottom fifth earn less than four percent. According to the textbook, the real dollars earned by people in the highest fifth increased by 47 percent over the past 30 years while the real dollars earned by people in the bottom fifth percent has increased by less than one percent! One contributing factor to this enlarging gap occurred when government assistance for those at the bottom was decreased due to tax cuts provided for those at the top in the 1980s, which was quite unexpected. Question 5: Describe the basic social welfare programs that are in place to assist the poor. Describe the primary differences between AFDC and TANF. Were the changes made in 1996 desirable? Why or why not? The basic social welfare programs in place to assist the poor are as follows: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs provide cash assistance for people who are poor and are 65 or older, blind or disabled. The SSI program is funded by general tax revenues and uses the Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines as well as the Social Security Disability Insurance Program to determine who receives assistance. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is run by the Department of Agriculture and was a result of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 and the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. To begin, the federal government determines the eligibility of a person to receive SNAP assistance. They then use general tax revenue to provide monthly benefits through an electronic debit card which can be used for food at commercial grocery stores. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was a result of the 1996 policy changes to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a program which provided guaranteed cash assistance to any family that was poor for as long as the family qualified. TANF adjusted this so that the entire family is eligible to receive benefits for no more than 24 consecutive months and a lifetime total of five years, and they added an additional rule which no longer allows mothers of children
under 3 to stay home with the child. Another change made between the AFDC and TANF can be referred to as the devolution of services. The term devolution refers to the movement of programs from the federal level to the state level, and this resulted in the TANF having more state flexibility and greater variability among TANF programs. In addition, TANF is now funded through an annual federal block grant, a set amount of money per year which limits the number of people the program is able to assist. These changes between the AFDC and TANF were not desirable because there has been a large decrease in families qualified to receive assistance through TANF, and additionally, there has been a drop in the proportion of families eligible for TANF who are actually being served. A theory presented in the textbook is the following: “…stricter program criteria are leading to reduced caseloads and state budget deficits are taking a toll on finance for social welfare programs, while poverty has been increasing.” Question 6: What role should social workers play in relation to poverty? Being a social worker, the ultimate goal is to encourage and strengthen our clients. While few social workers are found in public assistance offices, most social work settings serve low-income individuals and families. Therefore, social workers must have sufficient knowledge of existing social welfare programs such as SSI, SNAP, and TANF and know how to link people to these services. In addition, social workers must understand psychosocial conditions related to poverty, such as stress, blame and fear, and develop individual interventions to alleviate them. In addition, social workers must advocate for social and economic change to create a more economically just society. They can do this by having knowledge of public policy processes, how legislators create policy, and where in that process intervention can take place. Identifying and building on a community’s assets can be part of the social worker’s community-level intervention to help alleviate poverty. Finally, referring back to chapter one, it is also important for social workers to follow the strengths perspective, building on client’s strengths to create a positive change, and follow social work values and ethics, respecting the dignity and worth of the person despite their financial position.
Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.
Patricia Hyjer Dyk talks about poverty and how it complicates the family life. On the other hand, Stephanie Coontz focuses on how families have changed from the 20th century to the 21st century; focusing on the negative and positive aspects of both. Dyke doesn’t talk much about how the family system and the earning system has changed, while Coontz focuses on that; however, in both the authors’ articles, women and their role in the society are significantly covered.
Absolute poverty refers to when a person does not have the minimum amount of income needed to meet the minimum requirements for one or more basic living needs over an extended period of time. This includes things like, Food, Safe drinking water, Sanitation facilities Health, Shelter and Education. It can also be measure by those living on less than $1.25 a day.
Poverty is a significant threat to women’s equality. In Canada, more women live in poverty than men, and women’s experience of poverty can be harsher, and more prolonged. Women are often left to bear more burden of poverty, leading to ‘Feminization of poverty’. Through government policy women inequality has resulted in more women and children being left in poverty with no means of escaping. This paper will identify some key aspects of poverty for Canadian women. First, by identifying what poverty entails for Canadian women, and who is more likely to feel the brunt of it. Secondly the discussion of why women become more susceptible to poverty through government policy and programs. Followed by the effects that poverty on women plays in society. Lastly, how we can reduce these effects through social development and policy.
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
Supplemental Income Program In 1972, Congress replaced the State-administered programs with the Federally administered Supplemental Income (SSI) program as an assistance source of last resort for the aged, blind, or disabled whose income and resources are below specified levels. The SSI program went into effect in January 1974, administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). SSI has been highly successful in helping society's most vulnerable citizens. These individuals rely on SSI benefits in order to purchase the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a Federal food assistance program that can be traced to 1933. Since then SNAP has helped millions of Americans, who live below the poverty line, to purchase food and has been a safety net for Americans who have experienced hard times due to economic downturns. SNAP is an amazing federal program that without it, millions of Americans would be starving and economic activity would be down.
Poverty is multifaceted, and often hard to define. Its definitions consist of objective and subjective components, which, when trying to address, present a series of challenging debates. For simplicity, however, poverty can be defined in one of two ways; absolute poverty and relative poverty. Grounded in the idea of destitution, absolute poverty refers to when a person lacks the vital resources needed to maintain a healthy existence (Spicker et al., 2017). Access to clean water, sufficient food, and shelter, for example, are all considered essential elements of human life. Relative poverty, on the other hand, defines poverty in relation to the deprivation of the agreed living standards, set to a specific society, at a particular time (Alcock, 2016). Although humans must fulfill similar biological requirements, it is argued that human need tends to vary, both within, and across, societies. What is considered as a luxury to some, for example, may be considered as essential to others. Arguably the most influential theory on relative poverty is that of Peter Townsend (1979) who, in his pioneering work ‘Poverty in the UK’, defined relative poverty as;
Absolute poverty is where people don't have enough money to provide standard living conditions for themselves and characteristics of substandard lives are disease, malnutrition, and low-life expectancy. Relative poverty is where a person is considered poor in relation to the average wealth held in their society. Poverty is a major problem within the developing world. The developing world holds 75% of the world's population yet only 20% of the world's wealth. This presents a problem and the shortage of money leads them into the vicious circle of poverty, where one factor leads to another and eventually the situation spirals to terrible extents.
In today 's society, there is 1 in 7 people living in poverty which is costing Canadian citizens’ money as they are paying for taxes. There are many standpoints in which people examine the ways poverty affect society such as Marx’s conflict theory. Marx’s conflict theory goes over how social stratification being inevitable and how there is a class consciousness within people in the working class. Another way that poverty is scrutinized is by feminization. Feminization is the theory that will be explored throughout this essay. Poverty will be analyzed in this essay to determine the significance of poverty on the society and the implications that are produced.
Absolute poverty refers to subsistence below minimum, socially acceptable living conditions, usually established based on nutritional requirements and other essential goods; relative poverty compares the lowest segments of a population with upper segments, usually measured in income quintiles or deciles (Lok-Dessallien, 2000). And the subjective poverty which is defined by examining who people consider to be poor ( Eszter, 2011). Mor...
One of the Biggest Challenges for Women Today: The Feminization of Poverty The division of labour and education along gender lines, racial inequalities and discrimination, and unpaid domestic labour all contribute to the growing feminization of poverty. Feminists are working to decrease the income gap, to benefit the overall health of women and the population at large. The term feminization of poverty describes the disproportionate number of women who are poor, and its link to the division of labour along gender lines (Calixte, Johnson, & Motapanyane, 2010). The Canadian Labour Congress reported that in 2005, women working full time earned 70.5 cents to the dollar that every male in a comparable job earned ( as cited in Calixte, et al., 2010, p. 17). Across the board, women are more likely to suffer from poverty than men are (Harnan, 2006).
Poverty has been an ongoing societal pandemic in America ever since people were unable to make enough money to survive. Poverty, the condition of being very poor, affects Americans of varying races and genders. The two main types of poverty are relative poverty, the state in which someone lacks the minimum amount of revenue needed to sustain the average standard of living in the community they live in, and absolute poverty, the state of lacking one or more basic human needs such as food, water, or shelter because of their income level. Since suffering from relative poverty causes someone to suffer from absolute poverty because of their economic state, absolute poverty is a form of relative poverty. Poverty
For me, I’d divide poverty into two dimensions, the first one being absolutely poor, and this would be when one doesn’t even have enough money to support their basic needs of either themselves or their families, (these needs would be clothes, shelter, and food which are main things to living a healthy lifestyle.
Quantifying poverty has always been a crucial and tough task for the committees. There are various indices developed over time which deal with fundamental questions such as how many people will be considered poor in a society. For this, first of all we need to define a poverty line which can differ in urban and rural area, then what is the distribution of income among poor and how much money will be required to take the affected people out of poverty. Let us assume that information is available on a welfare measure such as income per capita, and a