How Poverty Is Measured In America

Poverty is measured in various ways based on the different cultures, lifestyles, experiences, and government standards. In countries such as America, the government has set up a poverty line that defines absolute poverty standards, or the income needed to provide for basic needs of the family. Government standards are an accurate way to compare families labeled as being “poverty stricken” because the line of poverty takes into account the income needed to cover basic needs for the variety of families across the whole country. Throughout communities poverty is also determined by relative poverty, or the average standard of living in the society in which they live. Therefore, these relative standards can change based on the cultures, lifestyles and values that the community believes in. Both relative and absolute poverty standards are common ways that poverty is measured in American and in other countries throughout the world.
In each country poverty can be defined by absolute
standards, which measure the minimum amount of income needed to provide for a family. Usually this amount is determined by the government, and if households fall below this government set poverty line, they are considered poor. For instance, Scott W. Allard, Ph. D, uses the example of how in the America, “the poverty line is based on the amount of income needed to allow households to eat adequately without spending more than a third of their income on food” to explain one instance of how poverty is measured. The absolute poverty standards that the government has set allow families in the poverty threshold (Median household income of $56,516 for family household and nonfamily households $33,805) to receive benefits such as food stamps, free and reduced lunch for children in schools, and Federal assistance which lifts millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty standards can also be measured by how incomes in family households contrast with that of others in the community, or relative poverty standards.
Therefore, the exact definition of poverty can change from place to place based on what a community views as being poor. The culture a family lives in and is surrounded by will cause “The exact definition of poverty to vary from one community to another. Most people define the term based on their unique cultures, lifestyles, and experiences.”(Allard). As Scott Allard describes, every person has different values, and in one community the people may view not owning something such as a car as a sign of poverty, where as in another culture they would not consider the lack of a car a sign of poverty. Therefore, in developed countries such as America, a familiy considered impoverished by relative standards, could be considered wealthy in a different, underdeveloped country because they have lower relative poverty standards than in
America.
Relative and absolute poverty standards are the two main standards used throughout the world to measure poverty. From a economical stance, government standards are used to determine the poverty population by claiming a certain amount of income needed to be above or below the poverty line. Based on this standard, families below the poverty line can receive aid and benefits for their family, unlike support received by relative standards. Relative standards are measured by how incomes in family households contrast with that of others in the community. Relative standards can vary based off of the lifestyles, cultures, and values of different communities. The threshold of poverty can be defined by both relative and absolute poverty standards and can change the type of families that are labeled as “impoverished” throughout communities.