Terry - Somerset
Established Member
You're missing the point. One post referred to 'unemployment' but then referred to in another post as 'poverty'. You can be employed but still be in poverty. No dig aimed at you by the way.
They are of course two different things:
- unemployment is the state of not having a (paying) job
- poverty is being unable to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter
Defining poverty in relative terms means a part of any population will be in poverty. In a population comprising millionaires and billionaires - relative poverty would happily define millionaires as needy - clearly daft.
Those living in poverty in the UK are (mostly) generally fed, housed, educated, enjoy health care, clean water, etc. They enjoy a living standard that would be regarded as aspirational in some parts of the world.
IMHO relative poverty is no more useful a definition than absolute poverty in defining real needs - more sense and less dogma needs to be applied.