What does it mean to be Poor?
Poverty
We all know that Poverty can mean many different things to different people. But, leaving Philosophy aside, one of the easiest types of poverty to measure is monetary poverty.
As such, a person in considered to be 'Poor' if he or she has a income below the Poverty Threshold.
The Poverty Threshold
This is the minimum income that is considered adequate for a human to live with.
It varies by country, and is calculated by using the sum off all essential products and services that an average human adult consumes in one year.
Housing
One of the biggest components in this calculation is the price of rent, that's one of the reasons why housing prices and the real estate market are so important to economies.
Extreme Poverty
Above and beyond poverty, exists Extreme Poverty, defined by the UN as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services" (source)
Less than 1$ a day
It's also defined by the World Bank as living with less than 1$ a day, 1996 dollars, equivalent to about 2$ of today's money.
Fight against Poverty
We're going to explore the fight against Poverty in another post, but, in few words, you can really help poor people in developing economies by giving them access to tech, such as smartphones and micro-loans.
Steemit
As an example, this very network can be used to alleviate a lot of financial stress for a lot of people!
If someone is making 5$ a day, an extra 2$ a day cents from Steemit would be amazing! And, accounting for Compounding, Long Term Growth and the use of other, non-Blockchain, social medias, it is a real opportunity to raise themselves above the Poverty Threshold!
Conclusion
Learning about what it means to be Poor is important, in order to better understand how we can fight against Poverty and help create a better world on the long term.
If you know of any more plans to alleviate world wide poverty, leave it the comments!
Thanks for reading!
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Read about another Bless and Bane for poor people: