Talk:Extreme poverty

Weird. So according to this 1$ definition less people will be poor when the US$ devaluates. And over time less people will be poor, simply because of because of inflation. So this definition seems utter nonsense to me. Could someone explain to me why it is not? Or point to some more knowledgeable critique of this definition? G-u-a-k-@ 00:27, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Though the number of people "earning less than a dollar a day" is a common figure cited when discussing global poverty, the methods by which one might calculate what a dollar is worth in developing countries are several and complex. Certainly the meaning of the phrase will change with inflation, and people who use this metric would have to take that into account.

This article is confused; it uses the term "abosolute poverty" to mean "very bad poverty" when income inequality metrics defines it as a technical term, which means poverty as measured by what you can afford, not by how you compare to others. I think it's best just to merge this article there, if there's anything here worth saving. -- Beland 07:14, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Absolute Poverty

Someone living beyond the edge of subsistence, whose continued existence is dependent on the active charity of others. May have a religious or world renouncing component if voluntary... User:swhit41

So if you look on Poverty, you'll see that there are two meanings to the term "absolute poverty", one of which is the percentage of people below some poverty line, and the other of which means "extreme poverty". The first meaning is already discussed at Income inequality metrics, and the remainder could easily be integrated into the discussion of absoluete/extreme poverty at Poverty. If this subject is going to expand into its own article (which could certainly be worthwhile), perhaps it would be best to rename it "extreme poverty" (or similar) instead, to avoid the confusion. -- Beland 03:23, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Semantic split

OK, I edited the article to clearly differentiate between the two meanings. What I was thinking was that the "In economics" part should move to Poverty line, since in this sense, being in "absolute poverty" means nothing more than being below someone's "poverty line." The material left over fot the section on how the phrase is used to mean "extreme poverty" is barely more than a dictionary definition, and so should either be moved to Wiktionary, merged with Poverty, or both. -- Beland 04:44, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Have just added a couple of lines; hope they clarify.