What are the definitions of poor and poverty? Many people hear the words poverty and have different meanings, so how do we know which definition and I poor is the correct one? According to many people poverty may mean a person who does not have any money to do the things they want to do, however most people can afford to live only on the things they truly need. This is just one example; there are many other definitions of the word poverty. Then what do people consider to be the meaning of the word poor? Some may say poor is not having enough money for that extra something at the supermarket or at the mall. What exactly are the true definitions of each word, and how do you tell the words apart and how do you know what to believe.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) the word poor means; wanting means to produce the comforts, or the necessaries of life; needy, indigent, destitute so destitute to be depended upon gifts or allowances for subsistence. These are the definitions from the (OED) a, very scholarly dictionary, how do we know that this is the correct definition of the word poor? Just because it is the definition in a book that everyone seems to trust or because there has been so much research going into that definition, it still only gives you an idea of what poor actually means. So how do we know the difference between the right definition and the wrong, or less correct definition? Is there really a true definition of the word poor perhaps there is but we don't know what the true meaning is and if we know the true meaning we may not even understand it.
As for the word poverty what does that mean? Also using the (OED) I found this definition, the condition or quality of being poor the ...
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...wn clothes, and endus up losing his life as he looses his farm. In using parts of the definitions I felt that they fit the story of the Joad family and the book The Grapes of Wrath because everyone in the story so far has been affected by what was happining and the characters of each fit well into the definitions of poor and poverty.
In conclusion of my definitions of poor and poverty is that to get the true definiton of poverty you have to think about the many other definitions and include all of them together and then decide when and how you can say that you or anyone else are actually considered to be poor or in poverty. It takes a lot of thought in thinking of what each of these words mean and many things should be taken into consideration before applying them.
Work Cited
OED: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition Oxford University Press 2002
The definition of poverty is that the household income is inadequate as judged by a particular standard. To gain a better understanding though we first have to consider what a family consists of. Is it just the blood-related family such as parents and children or do we count elder family members as well? How about roommates or foster children that live in the same household? Income also has to be defined as to what counts as household income. Is it just the earnings of a job or do we count in monetary gifts from employers and the government? Does bartering items or services in return for food or money can also be considered as income? These are all questions we have to define. The US government came up with two definitions as to how who is seen as poor and impoverished. The first term used is called “relative poverty.” The government says that after the family size is adjusted, the lowest one-third, one-fourth or one-fifth are the poor. The market basket is the second concept used in measuring poverty. Molly Olshansky came up with the idea by calculating the cost of a minimum nutritional diet with the household size. She concluded that one-third should be spent on food, and the other two-thirds should ...
Poverty- the state of being extremely poor ;the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount
All in all, my mother’s family who suffered from diabetes were considered to be obese. Although medications, exercise, or dieting will not for sure cure anyone, had they taken better precautions it is possible they may have lived a longer life. Being a genetic trait in my family I find it important to work out and watch what I eat so that I can avoid getting any types of diabetes. Make it your goal to be aware of what you are doing in your everyday life because you never knew if what you eat or do today will affect you tomorrow.
Poverty is the lack of money to the point that the individual cannot afford their basic needs. There are two types of poverty, absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is the lack of basic needs for a long period of time that puts your life in danger, which opposes with relative poverty, that covers the vital and biological needs like food, clean water, and basic housing (poverties.org, 2011) .
Merriam Webster defines poverty as the state of lacking a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. The United States Census Bureau identifies poverty as a lack of goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society. Professor Gene Nichol, however, defines poverty from an emotional, yet som...
Poverty is general scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements. Poverty seems to be chronic or temporary, and most of the time it is closely related to inequality. As a dynamic concept, poverty is changing and adapting according to consumption patterns, social dynamics and technological change. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter and health care. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.
What is poverty? “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time” (What is poverty).
In talking about poverty, it is very broad. You can talk about poverty in our lives, poverty in spiritual life, and other things that we experienced poverty. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school, not knowing how to read, and not being able to speak properly. Poverty is not having job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, and lack of freedom.
Poverty is the state of being extremely poor, or when people are living in deprivation of food, water and or shelter.
It varies in definition from one person to another. (Mills, 2000) However, the kind of poverty I will be talking about is the situation that comes to one’s mind on hearing the word; lack of basic needs and living from hand to mouth. This was a situation that I was in some time back not out of choice though. I was unlucky just as many kids born in a poor family where my parents aren’t really earning much and in that event one of the parents or both dies.
Poverty: classical economists define of poverty as, the inability to attain a minimal standard of living measured in terms of basic consumption needs or the income required for satisfying
The question is, what is poverty? Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs of life, including food, clothing, and shelter. Nevertheless I believe that poverty is much more that not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty as, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is the lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty
Economically poverty is the condition of not having enough funds to provide water, shelter, clothing and nutrients for them and the household. Socially, poverty is viewed as a disadvantage in the social belonging, such as capabilities, educational and cultural aspects. Here is an exception from Narayan, D. & P. Petesch. 2002. Voices of the poor: from many lands. Oxford University Press for the World Bank. New York, this is one of the best description out there to describe poverty from one’s point of view. “Throughout the Voices of the Poor series people vividly describe multiple, interlocking sets of disadvantages that leave them powerless to get ahead. Experiences of ill-being including material lack and want (of food, housing and shelter, livelihood, assets and money); hunger, pain and discomfort; exhaustion and poverty of time; exclusion, rejection, isolation and loneliness; bad relations with others, including bad relations within the family; insecurity, vulnerability, worry, fear and low self-confidence; and powerlessness, helplessness, frustration and anger”
Poverty is a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of millions each year. However, poverty is more prominent in some areas around the world than others. The Oxford dictionary defines poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, but it’s so much more. Poverty can be defined as being hungry, lacking shelter, being unable to go to school, being unable to see a doctor, or being powerless and having a lack of freedom. The reason behind the many descriptions of poverty is that poverty has many faces, and its definition changes depending on the place and time, however the effects of poverty on the poor are always the same.
Poverty an also be described as having a lack of income and/or goods to satisfy necessities-food, shelter, clothing, and acceptable levels of health and education.