describe absolute and relative poverty?

Answer 1

Relative poverty describes the economic condition of those who in one society might be considered below the poverty line, where in other societies that same level of income could be considered well above that line.

Absolute poverty is where one is in such poor shape economically that they would be seen as below the poverty line in almost any modern society.
In actuality even that definition could also fit one of relative poverty, or even of no poverty, in rare situations such as those found in the Amazon jungle, where some tribes and their members have virtually no income at all, yet all share equally in the meager sustenance they can gather from nature and for all intents and purposes, poverty has no "line" or meaning in their societies.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I believe absolute poverty is the kind of poverty in many developing countries. You know, lacking food and water, living in a straw shack in a village stricken by disease and walking around with sores all over your body because you can't afford ANY kind of treatment, and you endlessly appreciate getting just a handful of cooked rice and a penicillin shot - you get what I mean, what you see on TV when a commercial comes on urging you to donate money. The reason why your mother told you to finish your veggies when you were a kid.

Relative poverty: That's when you are poor in the area you live - but would live well in other countries (or even other cities). You would live decently off of $60,000 a year in West Virginia, but you would be *relatively poor* living in Manhattan, where it's becoming necessary to earn a six-figure income just to get by.

Answer 4

There is no such thing as absolute poverty in Britain thanx to the welfare state, relative poverty basically means low income, poor housing etc. Countries with absolute poverty have food/water shortage no healthcare etc

Answer 5

If you want to see absolute poverty, go to Haiti, where men work naked in the field because they don't want to risk spoiling their one set of clothes, where children eat stones because their bodies crave the minerals, where parasites thrive in most human bodies because medical treatment is an utter luxury, where water is scarce and it is difficult to grow crops of any kind, where the poor shelter you regard as home is likely to be demolished in the next hurricane, where the only chance most children have of being fed or educated is to be taken on as pupils in a mission school where they will have at least one square meal a day.

After you have experienced that, you realise that any other form of poverty around you is relative.

Answer 6

relative poverty is living on less than than the average person in your area , if you live in a town full of millionaires and you only have 250 thousand in the bank you could be said to be relatively living in poverty .

absolute poverty means you do not have sufficient food in order to survive and no means to alter your situation .

Answer 7

Absolute poverty is in relation to how much a human being has in order to survive and this can be based on what u spend money on, for example if i work at tesco full time and i earn 600 pounds a month, i would be in absolute poverty if after earning that money i was still unable to survive. relative poverty is related to the study of the standard of living, in our case income support and child benefit is calculated on relative poverty and the average amount of money needed to survive for a week is the income suport. anyone below this is in relative poverty as they cannot survive compared to people in the same location and standard of living as them. see rowntree research for more. think its joseph rowntree. gd ur doing sociology did it at college aswell. vey cool subject with functionalist, feminist and marxists.

Answer 8

absolute poverty definded as a condition inwhitch people do not have the maensto secure the most basic neccessities of life. realitive poverty when people can afford the basic neccessities but are unable to maintain anaverage standard of living. absolute povertyis living on less than a dollar a day.

Answer 9

absolute poverty is what you see in third world countries,where they have no housing .or access to fresh water, no food , or education,medication or hospitals or any of the everyday luxuries you and i take for granted. relative poverty is having the basics in life with an uphill struggle to just about manage to survive.

Answer 10

absolute poverty is where they are completely poor, ie homeless, relative poverty is in relation to those they live around, ie,living in council housing thats next to an expensive postcode is relative poverty, neither one is classed as being socially included. doing a degree in social policy myself, and its all down to capitalism, look up poor law on google, you'll find loads of info. also beveridge as in the report on welfare. the victorian web is also a good site