who decides what a poverty level is? someone in america who makes the poverty limit is rich compared to?

Question

hundreds of millions of other people on this planet. because the standard of living is so much higher in this country. how can you determine the poverty level?

what kind of groceries, what kind of rent(meaning how nice of a house should you live in)

hey i don't know dipstick, you must be the dipstick, you can't even understand the question.

don't get me wrong, i don't believe in wealth redistribution, if people want money they should work for it, if the wages are too low, the peopel won't do the job, so they'll have to raise it, i think its none of governments business to mess with the free market.

Answer 1

People in America do not even know what poverty means.

In third world countries, especially in India, there are generations of people who have lived on the streets. They are born on the streets, they grow up on the streets, they marry on the streets, and they have children on the street. THeir home is a plastic cover with sticks to support the entrance and stones to hold the other end in place. They do not know what it means to have a proper bathroom or a room.

They have never had air conditioning or fans to cool them. They most probably eat only one meal and thay may be made from rice turned into a broth. No veggies, no lentils, no bread or meat maybe no salt either.

Their stove is made from three pieces of stone arranged in a triangle with twigs and dry grass to start the fire. They collect cow manure from passing cattle, and mix it with dried grass, patted down and dried. That is their charcoal for the fire.

Their possessions consists of two sets of clothing and some pots and pans. The children they bear have never seen a glass of milk.

That is poverty. And beleive me Americans know nothing about poverty.

America has thrived on this kind of poverty. Just do some auditing and you will see for yourselves.

Answer 2

Two separate issues--American poverty and world poverty.

In the US there are the statistics that are compared across a wide variety of factors. One is the Consumer Price Index. Wage and Hour statistics are another. The Census bureau gives some demographic framework as well. Then we apply something which is essentially the bell curve. First you look at what the middle is and then define the fringes.

One common measure is called a geni coefficient, which graphs how many people have how much in earnings. The US and a few other "developed" countries have a much broader distribution of income than most countries. We have a very healthy middle, which we call the middle class. In countries with a feudal past, there was the upper class, the nobility, the mechant class, their middle class--upper wage earners, but they earned wages, they had to work for it as opposed to the nobility--this and everybody else, the lower class. In the US we have people in the lower, lower-class that are positively rich compared to the poor of most of the world. Our destitute empoverished people will often find more money than literal hundreds of millions of people elsewhere will earn all year.

The United Nations and World Trade Organization have two benchmarks that they use. One is earnings equivalent to $2 a day and the other is for the truly poor, those who earn less than the equivalent of $1 a day for their year's wages. They have bad food, if and when they can find it, bad jobs, if and when they can find them (usually partial day labor now and then for some cash, but it is mostly hunting, a little farming, and a lot of scavaging). Most countries have a geni curve that shows a miniscule share of people earning the biggest chunk of money, the bulk of the population living on the leftovers.

One of my economics professors showed pictures of a Latin American country where he traveled for an economic development conference. He gave pictures of a beautiful little town on a hill, with a pretty cottage and small garden in the foreground. The professor noted that the richest couple in the community lived in that little house. They hired a gardener, a cook, a woman to clean house and do laundry, and several others for various errands from time to time--they were a retired couple from the US, living only on their social security checks.

In closing, however, I need to add something. If you took every penney away from every above-average American, it still would not have eliminated poverty, rather it would make it worse. Sorry, your lofty idealism will not provide the capital for new jobs in this wide world (ask Laotians), will not produce more food for people (ask the people of Zimbabwe), and will not generate higher living standards (ask North Koreans).

Answer 3

very good question and a very good thought.

True experience. I grew up in the mid west in a rural area and as far as I am concerned I had a good life. ha ha That is until I was told I was poor when I got a little older and did join the US Military.

My Wife now who was born and raised in the Philippines had a great life while she was young and thought all was fine. Then later someone told her that her father only made 1 peso a day which was about 12 cents at that time so they were very poor. She said she was really confused for a long time for they seemed always to have food to eat. Not always the food they did desire but they did eat every day so how were they poor?

I do hope others will start to think a little about these standards that are put out to manipulate the minds of others for some motive. I do hope you question can and will make others to think a little and maybe come up with a better guideline or maybe quit trying to make the rest of the worlds like them and with their standards.

Do smile and have a good day.

Answer 4

Dipstick......... It's the poverty level for AMERICA, compared to other AMERICANS not to anyone else. Everyone knows that even the homeless bumms are middle class compared to third world countries.

Did you know that the Department of Transportation estimates that a homeless bumm on an Interstate Interchange begging for money makes on average $13.00 an hour. Pretty good for a bum!

Answer 5

I have travelled plenty yet I have under no circumstances been to lots of the poorer states of u . s . of america and considered the poverty defined with suggestions from lots of the answerers. regardless of this no longer something can evaluate to lots of the failings I have considered in africa. This one village i went to three months in the past develop into leagues below residing in a trailer park extremely receiving a foul preparation through poor authorities funding as one answerer defined. The village itself develop right into a chain of airborne dirt and mud huts and there develop into obviously no electricity/operating water in any way. Washing develop into all done in the Zambezi river and its tributaries that are notorious for crocodile assaults. There closest well-being center develop into an 8 hourcontinual away on a small airborne dirt and airborne dirt and mud music which had about a million lorry come down it per week. there develop right into a school construction which had 3 lecture rooms in it and the instructions each and each and every had about 60 youthful little ones in of various a at the same time as. What somewhat were given to me develop into regardless of the poor circumstances that they lived in they were chuffed and pleasant all of them were. That and taking area in football on a unadorned dusty piece of floor with a set of them are memories which will follow me perpetually I take exhilaration in that issues are undesirable in u . s . of america for some households and that i trust somewhat sorry if you happen to stay in the poorer states with little or no, even if it ought to no longer evaluate with how some human beings stay in infinite numbers of those small villages for the time of africa. yet another position that I were to that warrants a aspect out are the shanty cities of Rio de Jeniro, the following entire households stay in a hand-crafted dice or metal and different supplies they have amassed

Answer 6

when you cant afford to buy your own groceries or pay for your rent? derrr