Because being poor differs dramatically across countries, experts have had a difficult time establishing concrete terms to discuss it. Since the publication of its Human Development Report (1997), the United Nations has defined poverty as the "denial of choices and opportunities most basic to human development—to lead a long, healthy, creative life and enjoy a decent standard of livi…
A poverty line is a level of income below which a person cannot afford the bare minimum to exist: an amount of food sufficient to fuel the human body, clothing appropriate to a person's living and working conditions, and suitable shelter to protect from the elements. Governments determine their countries' poverty lines by calculating the annual average cost of basic necessities for a…
Governmental agencies in the United States tend to avoid using the term "poverty line" because they consider it ambiguous. Instead, U.S. officials divide poverty measurement tools into two categories: thresholds and guidelines. The U.S. Census Bureau issues poverty thresholds, which are statistical measurements used to track the total number of people living in poverty in the United…
In the paper "Reconsidering the Federal Poverty Measure" (University of Maryland School of Public Policy, Welfare Reform Academy, June 14, 2004), Douglas J. Besharov and Peter Germanis discuss problems with the use of thresholds and guidelines, noting two commonly cited failures of the measurements: Besharov and Germanis write that many commentators believe a more accurate picture of…
In addition to the above definitions and measurements of poverty, countries are classified by how "developed" they are economically. During the cold war—the period of escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from the 1950s until the Berlin Wall was dismantled in 1989—the terms "first world," "second world,…
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