Poverty
Poverty and Its Needs Have you ever seen a homeless person on the side of the road, and said I wish I could help them. ... "Poverty is generally defined as lack of sufficient resources necessary to maintain a minimally adequate standard of living. ... CD encyclopedia under Poverty) "The standard of living of a community is the degree of material well-being of the community, or of classes, groups, or individuals within it. ... CD encyclopedia under standard of living) Poverty is a relative concept, however, as adequacy is generally judged in terms of the standard of living of a society. Things that people in North America define as poverty, such as lack of indoor plumbing or electricity, would not necessarily be so regarded in Third World countries. ... CD encyclopedia under Poverty) Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia said, "Defining poverty in the united states was developed and adopted in the 1960s. ... Since families in that survey spent approximately one-third of their income on food, poverty was and still is defined for families of three or more as an index less than three times the cost of an economy food plan for emergency use. The poverty line is modified for family size, composition, and age and sex of the family head, and it is adjusted yearly for inflation in terms of the consumer price index. ... There are several problems with the poverty index. ... Second, the poverty line includes cash income but not in-kind, means-tested transfers (no cash benefits targeted at the poor, such as Medicaid, food stamps, and subsidized housing). Including these measures as income would decrease the poverty population, but there is no agreement on how to calculate the cash value of these benefits. Third, the poverty line is based on pretax income and does not allow for regional variation in cost of living. Fourth, the economy food plan on which the poverty index is based assumes an efficient and knowledgeable consumer and does not take account of ethnic preferences in food and lack of available storage space or cooking or shopping facilities.