Poverty

1. Poverty

2. Questions to Consider • What is poverty? • What does it look like to be poor? • Why is there poverty? • Where is there poverty? • What does a person need to have an adequate standard of living?

3. Why does it matter? • By understanding what poverty is, we acknowledge its existence. • This is the first step to combating the hardships it creates. • It brings awareness to the effects of scarcity and how it affects people. • Awareness inspires activism.

4. According to the United Nations “Poverty: a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.”

5. What does this mean? • lack of resources • Lack of materials necessary to survive • lack of capabilities and choices • Lack of education and skills necessary to choose your future • lack of security • Consistent exposure to violence and ongoing conflict

6. What does this mean? • lack of adequate standard of living • Safe and clean housing, healthcare and transportation are inaccessible (Standard of Living also encompasses resources, choices and security) • lack of rights (civil, cultural, economic, political and social) • They are denied to you because of a weak or oppressive government • They are inaccessible to you because you are poor (lack an adequate Standard of Living)

7. Why define poverty? • The United Nations believes that poverty is as much a denial of natural rights as it is an economic struggle. • Recognizing denial of rights is essential to restoring them. • Only by knowing exactly what poverty is can we know how to eradicate it.

8. How is the official UN definition used? • Used to identify, assess and act effectively on global situations. • Used as a standard or reference point across nations. • Commonly measured as an income of $1 to $2 a day.

10. Who uses this definition? The following organizations use this definition to help decide how to best reduce poverty: International Organizations: • UN: UNICEF, WHO, WFP • World Bank • IMF Philanthropic Organizations/NGOs: • Millennium Campaign • ONE • Oxfam

11. Who uses this definition? Governments use this definition to assess social and economic conditions to evaluate and carry out national economic policies and other programs to help the poor both within their own countries and abroad.

12. The United States

13. United States Definition of Poverty • Poverty in the US is officially defined by the US government. • The Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds to determine who is in poverty.  • This is money earned before taxes and does not include any non cash benefits such as food stamps. • Thresholdsaremoney income “minimums” based on specific details of a family. • The "absolute poverty line" is the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health. (HHS definition)

14. How does it all add up? • Minimum Wage - The federal minimum wage was increased 70 cents in July 2008, the second of three steps to raise it from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour by 2009. • If someone works 40 hours per week for 50 weeks a year earning minimum wage are they above or below the thresholds?

16. How does it all add up? • Health Insurance - About 47 million people (16%) were without health insurance coverage in 2006. This included about 9 million children. • Federal Programs - In May 2008, food stamp participation of about 28,400,000 persons was up over the prior May by more than 2 million people. • Need for Federal Funds - In 2007, 37.3 million people (12.5%) in the United States were in poverty.

17. Why does the US have an official definition of poverty? • Minimum Wage - The definition of poverty is taken into consideration when the federal government sets the minimum wage. • Health Insurance - State and local governments may use the federal poverty definition to determine whether people qualify for state-funded health insurance programs. • Federal Programs - The definition of poverty is used to determine eligibility for more than 25 government assistance programs such as the Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program.   • Allocation of Federal Funds - The definition of poverty is also looked at and is used to determine how to distribute Federal dollars in order to benefit the most people. 

19. Poverty in Mountain View • According to the 2000 Census: • 6.8% of the population and 3.6% of families in Mountain View had incomes below the poverty line in 1999. • 5.3% of native-born residents live below the poverty line. • 7.0% of foreign-born residents live below the poverty line. • 7.2% of those under the age of 18 were living below the poverty line. • 6% of Mountain View residents are below the poverty line vs. 12% for the whole state.

20. Teach-In Essential Questions • What is poverty? • Is poverty inevitable? • Is poverty best addressed through public or private efforts?

21. Thresholds developed in 1963-1964 by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration (Original Purpose: To conduct studies about the Department of Agriculture’s food economy analyses) • A few ways to understand poverty: -consumption based poverty: (minimum income) -poverty as a failure of capabilities: i.e. one fails to provide x, y, z for themselves.