Lately, I have been working on a book chapter, which focuses on poverty myths. One of the aspects that the chapter examines is the claim that poverty in rich countries is relative. I have had firsthand experience of this claim in our study of poverty in Brunei Darussalam, a rich country in Southeast Asia. Through a relative lens, a person is deemed to be poor if his/her level of quality of life is lower than that of others in his/her society or if his/her income is below a certain percentage of median national income, as is the case in the European Union.  In rich countries, therefore, poverty is usually measured in relative terms, as explained here and here.

The notion of construing poverty as ‘relative’ was championed by the likes of Peter Townsend. It was, however, critiqued by the famous Harvard Scholar, Amartya Sen, in his scholarly article of 1983,  Poor, Relatively Speaking, which led to a fierce but enlightening exchange between him and Peter Townsend. Sen argued that poverty (whether in rich or poor countries) should not be interpreted as a relative but absolute phenomenon. He stressed that deprivations experienced by people should be judged in absolute terms and not in comparison with the standard of living of others in a particular society (Sen, 1985).

I am inclined to agree with Amartya Sen, not only because his arguments strongly influence how poverty is conceptualised and measured today, but also based on my own experience spending time with poor people and conducting poverty studies in developing countries such as  Zimbabwe and Cambodia and rich countries like Brunei. In this blog post, I share some of the arguments raised in the chapter.

Poverty is absolute: it is an undesirable life condition that a person experiences without reference or comparison to the living conditions of others within society. A person does not need to look at the living standards of others to know if he/she is experiencing a difficult life (living in poverty) but exclusively on whether or not his/her own life is free of hardships. In our poverty studies in Brunei and Zimbabwe, for example, people described poverty based on their own experiences, without comparing themselves to others. Certainly, poor people have a lower standard of living within society but not everyone who is relatively less well-off is necessarily poor.

Absolute poverty is not synonymous with extreme poverty. For the most part, absolute poverty is construed as extreme poverty. The Copenhagen Declaration of the World Summit for Social Development, for example, defined absolute poverty as “severe deprivation of basic needs.”  This fed into the claim that absolute poverty is a challenge for poor countries and relative poverty (which is regarded as moderate poverty ) is a problem for rich countries, as reported, for example, in this article and this book, which I reviewed here. A person can, however, be extremely or moderately deprived in absolute terms (Sen, 1983;1985). Thus, poverty is absolute and it can be severe, as when one is homeless, or less severe, as when one has a house but does not have enough rooms for all the members of the household.

Interpreting poverty as relative, as is the case in rich countries, presents its own challenge, which is likely to make it impossible to attain  Sustainable Development Goal 1 of ending poverty in all its dimensions throughout the world. Indeed, it eclipses the nature of poverty within society. The generally accepted definition of relative poverty is, as I stressed earlier, that of ‘having an income that is below a certain percentage (50 or 60 %) of median income.’ Poverty, by nature and in rich and poor societies alike (see here and here, for example), is multidimensional: it is more than merely a lack of income,  as the definition above seems to suggest. Treating poverty as relative makes other dimensions of poverty invisible or has them overlooked in poverty eradication efforts.

In the final analysis, then, poverty is absolute, and rich countries face it too, albeit less severely. To be considered poor, a person has to be experiencing difficult life, irrespective of the quality of life of others in society.