Poverty

In all aspects of living, if you have not plenty of them you considered as a poor. Even if you don't have enough knowledge and opportunity you still consider poor int hat aspects. Well yes, in my case, i considered myself as a poor, coz i don't have much money, opportunity to find a good job,but i do enjoy of what i have now. But the important is you are happy in your simple life. Make your life more meaningful and full of love is what matter most to me. So im happy being poor but rich of love and peace in mind. Cheers.

yes i do actually feel poor to a certain extent. we dont have a health or dental plan so we are not able to get to the dentist. also, to me, poverty means that you are falling behind on your bills to the point of loosing your house, but we are not at that point just yet.

Hi there Mojcica! I think that poverty is not having enough to suit your needs in any aspect of life. You can be poor financially, spiritually, mentally, or emotionally. I think I am not poor in any of these aspects. I have enough to live by and a bit more, I havelots of people who loves me, I have a strong faith in God and I only feel sad when I am missing my relatives, my loved ones who are living far away from me.

No matter what we have in life, we always want what we don't have. I am learning to not feel that way. I lay in bed last night and i thanked GOD for everything, i thanked Him for my clothes, food, water, my family, my beautiful daughter, my safety, my happiness, electricity, money, my job, etc, etc.....I am truly blessed :-)

The words "poverty" and "poor" came from Latin pauper = "poor", which originally came from pau- and the root of pario, i.e. "giving birth to not much" and referred to unproductive farmland or livestock. [edit] Measuring poverty World map showing percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2006 World map showing percentage of population living on less than 1 dollar per day. UN estimates 1990-2005. CIA world map showing percentage of population living below their national poverty line. World map showing life expectancy. World map showing the Human Development Index. World map showing the Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality. The percentage of the world's population living on less than $1 per day has halved in twenty years. Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. The graph shows the 1981-2001 period. Life expectancy has been increasing and converging for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has recently seen a decline, partly related to the AIDS epidemic. Graph shows the years 1950-2005.About 1/2 of the human population suffers from poverty. Poverty can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000-2500 calories per day for an adult male). The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ (PPP) 1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day, estimating that "in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day."[3] The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[3] Looking at the period 1981-2001, the percentage of the world's population living on less than $1 per day has halved. Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia.[4] In East Asia the World Bank reported that "The poverty headcount rate at the $2-a-day level is estimated to have fallen to about 27 percent [in 2007], down from 29.5 percent in 2006 and 69 percent in 1990."[5] In Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty rose from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001, which combined with growing population increased the number of people living in poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[6] Other regions have seen little change. In the early 1990s the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income. Poverty rates rose to 6 percent at the end of the decade before beginning to recede. There are various criticisms of these measurements.[10] Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion note that although "a clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident, although with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and India has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor". Since the world's population is increasing, a constant number living in poverty would be associated with a diminshing proportion. Looking at the percentage living on less than $1/day, and if excluding China and India, then this percentage has decreased from 31.35% to 20.70% between 1981 and 2004.[11] Other human development indicators are also improving. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, where most Least Developed Countries are to be found, life expectancy increased from 30 years before World War II to a peak of about 50 years, before the HIV pandemic and other diseases started to force it down to the current level of 47 years. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world[12]. The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: Female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000. The percentage of children not in the labor force has also risen to over 90% in 2000 from 76% in 1960. There are similar trends for electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as the proportion of the population with access to clean water.[13] The book The Improving State of the World finds that many other indicators have also improved. Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. Income inequality is a relative measure of poverty. A relative measurement would be to compare the total wealth of the poorest one-third of the population with the total wealth of richest 1% of the population. There are several different income inequality metrics. One example is the Gini coefficient. Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing. A 2002 study by Xavier Sala-i-Martin finds that this is driven mainly, but not fully, by the extraordinary growth rate of the incomes of the 1.2 billion Chinese citizens. China, India, the OECD and the rest of middle-income and rich countries are likely to increase their advantage relative to Africa unless it too achieves economic growth; global inequality may rise. [14][15] The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the number living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the Czech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the developing world and even if conditions there improve in absolute terms, the report warns, Africa in 2030 will be home to a larger proportion of the world's poorest people than it is today.[16] In many developed countries the official definition of poverty used for statistical purposes is based on relative income. As such many critics argue that poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. For instance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46% of those in "poverty" in the U.S. own their own home (with the average poor person's home having three bedrooms, with one and a half baths, and a garage).[17] Furthermore, the measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 50% of the median household income. The US poverty line is more arbitrary. It was created in 1963-64 and was based on the dollar costs of the United States Department of Agriculture's "economy food plan" multiplied by a factor of three. The multiplier was based on research showing that food costs then accounted for about one third of the total money income. This one-time calculation has since been annually updated for inflation.[18] Others, such as economist Ellen Frank, argue that the poverty measure is too low as families spend much less of their total budget on food than they did when the measure was established. Further, federal poverty statistics do not account for the widely varying regional differences in non-food costs such as housing, transport, and utilities. [19] [edit] Other aspects The point is, economic aspects of poverty may focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income. Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished "capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value.[20] The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power.[21][22] Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.[23][24][25] The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty.[26] These include: precarious livelihoods excluded locations physical limitations gender relationships problems in social relationships lack of security abuse by those in power dis-empowering institutions limited capabilities, and weak community organizations. David Moore, in his book The World Bank, argues that some analyses of poverty reflect pejorative, sometimes racial, stereotypes of impoverished people as powerless victims and passive recipients of aid programs

I consider myself poor, even when I was working I was among the working poor. I have an education, I had a descent paying job, but with the costs of everything, even when I was working I could barely take care of my needs. My rent alone is hard to handle, with a job, so imagine now without one. I consider myself poor, because I can not afford to buy food, I have to choose between paying a bill to avoid the phone calls or buying food. At this time, I do have a roof over my head, a little something to eat, and clothes on my back, but I am struggling every day in order to keep this going. I am grateful for what I have, but at this point I do not have a quality of life. I understand that there are people worse off than I am, and I really do feel for them, because I can understand their struggles. As I am typing this, I just got a phone call from a creditor asking for money that I do not have.

Our income is below poverty level for the USA, We have no dental, not medical, cannot get either as we are a family of 2 and DSHS said we make to much, $15,400 is too much. We don't have any retirement savings, no life insurance nor can we afford it. We use antenna for t.v can't afford satellite. We don't get newspapers or magazines. We only go out if invited out to resturants and paid for by others. Our kids help us with buying groceries and we go to the food bank. Guess we are for sure poor.

I used to think I am poor. But now I feel it is not good to always think about the negative. If I think I am poor, I would feel so worthless and down. I would think other people are looking down on me too. So now I try my best not to think of myself as being poor, but someone who is still struggling to reach a more comfortable phase in life. My husband and I believed in buying things cash because we don't like to take loans. We know if we take loans we would not be able to live comfortably. Many people around me, especially the neighbors because they are the nearest to me and I can see the proof in front of my own eyes - they like to take loans even on buying electrical appliances for their home. For example they take a fridge, the sofa, television set, hi-fie, and even clothes! I never understand why they like to own things when in reality they can't afford it. And they take a big amount of loan. And I see some of them used a tactic of moving to a new place to avoid being detected by the debt collector. What a pity. This type of people are the ones I consider being the poorest, even though their appear to own many assets. My husband and I, on the other hand collected our own money little by little. We bought our first car with cash and it was a second hand car which only had two doors. It was a very small and old car. But we thought it is enough if the car can bring us to the place we want, rather than worrying on how to pay for a new car. We live comfortably because we never took any mortgage on anything small. Just recently we bought a new car (for us it is new but actually it is a second hand) after we had sold the old one. We window shopped at a lot of places before we decided to purchase this car - also by cash. The price is cheap - it is only RM14k and we bought it using our earned money which we had collected for years. The car looks brand new, 1.5 (Automatic) and that's the reason why I chose to buy it. I inspected the car and it had no problem. A lot of people asked me how did I manage to get a car which looks brand new with a price so low? I think I am just lucky because we managed to find a good quality car and the brand is the one I have been dreaming of owning for a long time. The only thing I would apply for a mortgage is when we want to buy a house. My husband and I had planned to buy a house long ago, but we want to make sure we are able to pay at least 10% from the actual price of the house with cash. Now we had managed to have the money and last week my husband and I had found the perfect house. It is a condominium with three beds and two baths. It is renovated by the owner and he never lived in the house. I inspected the other units there and the lowest price offered as RM120k per unit. However I think I am lucky the unit that I wanted to buy was owned by a Chinese who wanted to sell it cheap. He said he would sell it with the price below RM100k. I got his business card from the security guard who was on duty on the day we came to the condominium to look around for houses to buy. On the card I noticed the owner wrote RM80k. So I am determined to get the exact price if he suddenly said the price is more than he had written. If possible I would demand for a lesser price. I hope by the end of this year we would be able to own our own house. I can't wait for the happy moment. We had lived in poor condition in the past 10 years of our marriage, and this year everything seems to change. Our patience are now paying us back and we are able to enjoy the rewards from the money we have kept for so long. As a conclusion, I felt poor before but now I longer feel the same way. I don't want to feel poor because if I feel poor other people will look down on me. If I feel I am the same with others, others will see the confidence in me and will respect me. Thanks, and take care.

My family used to be poor, but we're not any longer fortunately. Like everybody, we're having tough times...but so far we've been able to handle it. We didn't have heat, running water, and my parents would often give up portions of their meals so my little brother and I could eat. Our shelter was falling apart, lol. Looking back, I'm not sure how we got to where we are now (with a nice house, with my parents with OK jobs). All I can figure is, we held on and were extremely lucky. We're still working on being able to afford to finish my education, but so far it looks like...my avid addiction to reading and knowledge has at least helped me keep all I learned when my education wasn't a worry and to let me finish it even though I missed a few years. (We became poor JUST as I was working on graduating high school early between age 14-15) I'm lucky. That's all I can think to explain my life, right now. And I don't even believe in luck..so...*loss for words* Do I want more? All I want is to be able to set up my life. That's all I can say that I really want.

If Poverty is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens, then I'm glad I am not suffering poverty because by the grace of God, I'm not deprived of those things yet. I am so happy and contented for what I have. Contentment is the key to happiness. It's just counting the blessing I have in my life for they are so many. For sure I am not rich but for as my family is intact and harmoniously living and our needs are provided each day...then I am already happy and contented and I feel rich in my own way.

I agree with the definition in wikipedia. But are we not all poor. We are always desiring for something that we dont have and we think we cannot afford it. So it means we are poor coz we dont have it. The so called rich class has no peace coz they r so rich that they have no time for neone but themselves. That would mean they too are poor coz there are no time for each other. No time for neing with the family and having emtions. "POOR" word can denote lot of different meanings depending on ones outlook. I would feel poor if my husband did not hvae time for me and my son. Or if i had o time for my son. There are such wonderful emotions involved in all realtionships. That most of are always deprived of some or the other emotion. No one has everything and nothing.

Poverty speaks when our stomach ask for foods every meal time. If there is no home to rest and no clothes to dress. Lack of all we need in order to live. Poverty is a worldwide problem of each and every nations. When it ends? As long as there is corruption in one country it will hard to solve. In my own country many are living in poverty. No one can ask for more because they cannot meet at least one of their needs. Sleeping along the sides street. Beggars to ask for foods and a homeless citizens. I feel lonely for them, hoping time will come to change their life into better.

Poverty continuously challenges our present lives across social classes and positions in the society. Our people are accused of not having a view of the future, because we are dwelling on how to sustain ourselves each day, one day at a time. However, if we look at it more closely, this orientation leads us into the hope that serves as the fabric of our choices.

the standard measures of poverty are usually poverty thresholds officially determined by governments or international institutions like the World Bank. This poverty threshold is usually defined as the amount needed by an individual or family in order provide for basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, etc. Of course, definitions of poverty and thresholds vary across countries and geographic regions. The kinds of food (or other basic commodities) available and differences in prices between regions are among the determinants of local poverty thresholds. I would consider myself poor in the economic sense when I would no longer have my basic needs met, like food, clothing, shelter, etc. We must take into consideration that such criteria vary greatly from person to person, or from place to place. So poverty, I guess, is something that is determined by convention.

I don't consider myself poor. And I am happy that I have what i have. But I have seen what poverty is, because here there are many people who are not so blessed and live in poverty. I have seen extreme hunger on many of my fellow brothers' faces, but I have also seen hope as so many fortunate ones have made it a purpose of their lives to wipe it out of every needyone's lives. I am studying hard so that come tommorrow I am capable of doing worthwhile measures to bring smiles on as many lives as possible.

with lot of care and love...i never felt iam poor

i am in poverty condition now,and i am not feeling sad.because i am a colledge student and my family is poor ,but it is not my wrong ,or my family ,it is what the society makes.so i dont think i am not looked dowm upon by other weathy people,i have a ambition that i will improve my life in the future. and i am helped by the school there is nothing worry about....