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Poverty is the inability to afford adequate food and shelter and maintain health, wellbeing and dignity.
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I agree with your definition but the official one used by the Census Bureau to define who is and isn't poor is this:
"Following the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty. The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation using Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps)."
Poverty - How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/povdef.html - broken link)
And that is why people considered to be "poor" by the government can have multiple TVs, cars, air conditioning,their own houses, etc.
With all the technology and wealth that exist today, why haven't we been able to create a social Utopia?
Because, as un-PC as this is, human beings are not created 'equal.' There will always be those who are smarter, willing to work harder, etc...so whoever isn't will always seem 'poor' in comparison.
Case in point...look at the poor in this country and compare them to, say, Indonesia. In Indonesia, our overweight, cell-phone toting poor people would seem like kings.
Why do you think there's so many illegal immigrants in this country, they see that.
Take a step back and put your self in their shoes. Your in one of those countries and poor, you happen to be watching one of the TV's that probably 30 people share in a hut. Your watching something that contains American culture.
Now you understand when those people see this country it looks like a gigantic brochure to a better life.
Can poverty become eradicated? Should poverty become eradicated?
It is a wonderful goal and ideal, but the problem is that, by definition, poverty can never be eliminated. It is relative to how others around them live. In today's America, the average family below the poverty line has a home, at least one vehicle, food on the table and cable TV. That is middle class or better in countless nations around the world even today. The American "elite" of 200 years ago didn't have indoor plumbing.
As for the social Utopia part, we are dreamers. As soon as we own something or invent someting new, we start thinking about what would be even better. Without invoking too much religion, I believe that we are wired to expect something much greater than we could ever acheive on Earth, and therefore will never be content or satisfied. In fact, the beginning of an old movie, "The gods must be crazy" addressed how we develop new technology to simplify our life, but in turn require more time, education and money to use it - ultimately making us busier than we were before.
some utopias cant be gifted-- they have to be built from within.
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