What defines poverty?
30 November 2002, 04:41 PM
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Heard on BBC Wales news last night that one third of children in Wales live in poverty.
I worked as a gas fitter for 15 years all over South Wales and have worked in 1000's of houses of all sizes and values and have therefore seen most situations that ppl have to live in.
I am therefore really confused as to what this word poverty means.
Does it mean the kids havent got DVDs in their rooms,or Sat TV.
Maybe they only get £10/week pocket money. I dont know but would l;ike to find out.
Chip.
I worked as a gas fitter for 15 years all over South Wales and have worked in 1000's of houses of all sizes and values and have therefore seen most situations that ppl have to live in.
I am therefore really confused as to what this word poverty means.
Does it mean the kids havent got DVDs in their rooms,or Sat TV.
Maybe they only get £10/week pocket money. I dont know but would l;ike to find out.
Chip.
30 November 2002, 04:45 PM
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It's relative to the society you live in.
Many people around the world would love to live in the British defintion of poverty.
I went to India last year with work, and a few of us got all our small change together at the end and gave it to this guy who was used as a skivvy by the hotel we were staying in. It worked out to about £25, but you should have seen this guy's face! He almost passed out with joy at this money, which worked out to be about 4 months wages.
Many people around the world would love to live in the British defintion of poverty.
I went to India last year with work, and a few of us got all our small change together at the end and gave it to this guy who was used as a skivvy by the hotel we were staying in. It worked out to about £25, but you should have seen this guy's face! He almost passed out with joy at this money, which worked out to be about 4 months wages.
30 November 2002, 04:56 PM
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Fukc knows, mate!
Poverty to me is not having enough cash at the end of the night to get that 'lovely' chicken kebab after my 12 pints of Stella!
Poverty to me is not having enough cash at the end of the night to get that 'lovely' chicken kebab after my 12 pints of Stella!
30 November 2002, 06:57 PM
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Poverty.. Terrible if your in it... Yes there are loads of folk with nothing. I witness old folk who have done the Wars etc and have nothing.. they go to Bricklane market at 6 am in the morning sundays to sell a pair of shoes.So that they can get some food or a few hours electric...
Makes me sick as F.uck. B.astard refugees never look hungry..
Makes me sick as F.uck. B.astard refugees never look hungry..
30 November 2002, 07:59 PM
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Mid, North Wales is depressed indeed - went shopping in a Retail Park, thought it was a Scrapyard - REALLY, the cars were at least 10 years old!! Most surely had NO MOT!!
I stayed with the car while missus went to get some groceries - didnt like the attention it stirred amongst the lads hanging about, so just sat on the rear of the wagon - 'On Guard!!'
However, is it because they spend their money on Beer, **** and The Dogs?? Its NOT the states responsibility if the parents are ****-Heads is it??
They ARE poor in the sight of Southerners however, imagine what they would do with £75,000 a year?? Yes, ok, pi55 it up the wall!!
What do you do?
Pete
I stayed with the car while missus went to get some groceries - didnt like the attention it stirred amongst the lads hanging about, so just sat on the rear of the wagon - 'On Guard!!'
However, is it because they spend their money on Beer, **** and The Dogs?? Its NOT the states responsibility if the parents are ****-Heads is it??
They ARE poor in the sight of Southerners however, imagine what they would do with £75,000 a year?? Yes, ok, pi55 it up the wall!!
What do you do?
Pete
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01 December 2002, 06:35 PM
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Poverty definition from US Census
"Poverty statistics presented in this report are based on a definition developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 1964 and revised in 1969 and 1981 by interagency committees. This definition was established as the official definition of poverty for statistical use in all Executive departments by the Bureau of the Budget (BoB) in 1969 (in Circular No. A-46); after BoB became Office of Management and Budget, this was reconfirmed in Statistical Policy Directive No. 14.
The original poverty index provided a range of income cutoffs or thresholds adjusted by such factors as family size, sex of the family head, number of children under 18 years old, and farm- nonfarm residence. At the core of this definition of poverty was the economy food plan, the least costly of four nutritionally adequate food plans designed by the Department of Agriculture. It was determined from the Department of Agriculture's 1955 Household Food Consumption Survey that families of three or more persons spent approximately one-third of their after-tax money income on food; accordingly, poverty thresholds for families of three or more persons were set at three times the cost of the economy food plan. Different procedures were used to calculate poverty thresholds for two-person families and persons living alone in order to compensate for the relatively larger fixed expenses of these smaller units. For two-person families, the cost of the economy food plan was multiplied by a factor of 3.7 (also derived from the 1955 survey). For unrelated individuals (one-person units), no multiplier was used; poverty thresholds were instead calculated as a fixed proportion of the corresponding thresholds for two-person units. Annual updates of these SSA poverty thresholds were based on price changes of the items in the economy food plan.
As a result of deliberations of a Federal interagency committee in 1969, the following two modifications to the original SSA definition of poverty were adopted: (1) the SSA thresholds for nonfarm families were retained for the base year 1963, but annual adjustments in the levels were based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than on changes in the cost of foods in the economy food plan; and (2) the farm thresholds were raised from 70 to 85 percent of the corresponding nonfarm levels. The combined impact of these two modifications resulted in an increase in the tabulated totals for 1967 of 360,000 poor families and 1.6 million poor persons.
In 1981 three additional modifications in the poverty definition recommended by another interagency committee were adopted for implementation in the March 1982 CPS as well as the 1980 census: (1) elimination of separate thresholds for farm families, (2) elimination (by averaging) of separate thresholds for female- householder families and "all other" families (earlier termed "male-headed" families) and (3) extension of the detailed poverty threshold matrix to make the largest family size category "nine persons or more." For further details, see the section, "Changes in the Definition of Poverty," in Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 133.
The poverty thresholds are increased each year by the same percentage as the annual average Consumer Price Index. Table A-1 shows the CPI and the corresponding thresholds for a family of four for the 1959-93 period. The poverty thresholds are currently adjusted using the annual average CPI-U (1982-84 = 100). This base year has been used since 1988. From 1980 through 1987 the thresholds were adjusted using the CPI-U (1967 = 100). The CPI (1963 = 100) was used to adjust thresholds prior to 1980. Table A-2 shows the full poverty threshold matrix for 1993.
For further information on how the poverty thresholds were developed and subsequent changes in them, see Gordon M. Fisher, "The Development and History of the Poverty Thresholds," Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 55 No. 4, Winter 1992, pp. 3-14."
"Poverty statistics presented in this report are based on a definition developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 1964 and revised in 1969 and 1981 by interagency committees. This definition was established as the official definition of poverty for statistical use in all Executive departments by the Bureau of the Budget (BoB) in 1969 (in Circular No. A-46); after BoB became Office of Management and Budget, this was reconfirmed in Statistical Policy Directive No. 14.
The original poverty index provided a range of income cutoffs or thresholds adjusted by such factors as family size, sex of the family head, number of children under 18 years old, and farm- nonfarm residence. At the core of this definition of poverty was the economy food plan, the least costly of four nutritionally adequate food plans designed by the Department of Agriculture. It was determined from the Department of Agriculture's 1955 Household Food Consumption Survey that families of three or more persons spent approximately one-third of their after-tax money income on food; accordingly, poverty thresholds for families of three or more persons were set at three times the cost of the economy food plan. Different procedures were used to calculate poverty thresholds for two-person families and persons living alone in order to compensate for the relatively larger fixed expenses of these smaller units. For two-person families, the cost of the economy food plan was multiplied by a factor of 3.7 (also derived from the 1955 survey). For unrelated individuals (one-person units), no multiplier was used; poverty thresholds were instead calculated as a fixed proportion of the corresponding thresholds for two-person units. Annual updates of these SSA poverty thresholds were based on price changes of the items in the economy food plan.
As a result of deliberations of a Federal interagency committee in 1969, the following two modifications to the original SSA definition of poverty were adopted: (1) the SSA thresholds for nonfarm families were retained for the base year 1963, but annual adjustments in the levels were based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than on changes in the cost of foods in the economy food plan; and (2) the farm thresholds were raised from 70 to 85 percent of the corresponding nonfarm levels. The combined impact of these two modifications resulted in an increase in the tabulated totals for 1967 of 360,000 poor families and 1.6 million poor persons.
In 1981 three additional modifications in the poverty definition recommended by another interagency committee were adopted for implementation in the March 1982 CPS as well as the 1980 census: (1) elimination of separate thresholds for farm families, (2) elimination (by averaging) of separate thresholds for female- householder families and "all other" families (earlier termed "male-headed" families) and (3) extension of the detailed poverty threshold matrix to make the largest family size category "nine persons or more." For further details, see the section, "Changes in the Definition of Poverty," in Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 133.
The poverty thresholds are increased each year by the same percentage as the annual average Consumer Price Index. Table A-1 shows the CPI and the corresponding thresholds for a family of four for the 1959-93 period. The poverty thresholds are currently adjusted using the annual average CPI-U (1982-84 = 100). This base year has been used since 1988. From 1980 through 1987 the thresholds were adjusted using the CPI-U (1967 = 100). The CPI (1963 = 100) was used to adjust thresholds prior to 1980. Table A-2 shows the full poverty threshold matrix for 1993.
For further information on how the poverty thresholds were developed and subsequent changes in them, see Gordon M. Fisher, "The Development and History of the Poverty Thresholds," Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 55 No. 4, Winter 1992, pp. 3-14."
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