What is Poverty?

Today was international day in my nonprofits class. We talked about international nonprofits and how they have been growing over the last few years because being involved in an international nonprofit is now the cool thing to do, especially when you are fighting a sexy cause like poverty. The problem is, as privileged citizens of the United States or wherever it is we're coming from, we have very different preconceived ideas of what poverty is compared to the people we are trying to help. So the question is, what is poverty?

I think the answer is, it depends. In the United States, not having a dishwasher may mean poverty, (or it may mean a college student on a budget). But if you were to decide that in order to eliminate poverty, we needed to make sure that everyone in Asia and Africa has a dishwasher, you would be ridiculous. So you could say that eliminating poverty means making sure that everyone has access to the basic physical needs of life: food, clean water, shelter, clothing, and safety. But I think there's more to it than that. What about social poverty? What about intellectual poverty? If you entered a community where everyone had a home, had clothing, had food and safe water and didn't have to fear being shot every time they stepped outside their door, but where women were treated as second class citizens and unable to get an education, or where everyone was required to practice a specific religion, would you say the people there didn't live in poverty?

You could say that poverty is ensuring that all people can access every human right to which they are entitled, but still it depends. What is important to you? What do you consider to be a human right? And what are you using as a standard for comparison? I may consider education to be a human right, but what standard of education is good enough? Must everyone receive a PhD for that need to be satisfied? Probably not. But is being barely able to read good enough? I think it depends. What is important to you?

I think this is something important to consider, because I will be entering a country where there is poverty. But does that mean the people there are unhappy? Not necessarily. Does that mean that their society and their culture is worth any less than mine? Absolutely not. Does that mean that changes need to be made? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends. What is important to them?