posts_gdocs: 1RdWJsqh16BxYqHLloK8RHnbuVYgVX2eHOlDodo9wIGk
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| 1RdWJsqh16BxYqHLloK8RHnbuVYgVX2eHOlDodo9wIGk | what-do-poor-people-think-about-poverty | article | {
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"text": "One of the most important trends that we can learn from the work of social scientists and historians is that extreme poverty, as measured by people's level of consumption, has fallen considerably around the world in the ",
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"text": "But why should we care? Is it not the case that poor people might have less consumption but enjoy their lives just as much\u2014or even more\u2014than people with much higher consumption levels?",
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"text": "One way to find out is to simply ask. Subjective views are an important way of measuring welfare.",
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"text": "This is what the ",
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"text": " asked people around the world what they thought about their standard of living\u2014not only about their income. The following chart compares the answers of people in different countries with the average income in\u00a0those countries. It shows that, broadly speaking, people living in poorer countries\u00a0tend to be less satisfied with their living standards.",
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"text": "This suggests that economic prosperity is not a vain, unimportant goal but rather a means for a better life. The correlation between rising incomes and higher self-reported life satisfaction\u00a0is shown in our topic page ",
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"text": "This is more than a technical point about how to measure welfare. It is an assertion that matters for how we understand and interpret development.",
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"text": "First, the smooth relationship between income and subjective well-being highlights the difficulties that arise from using a fixed threshold above which people are abruptly considered to be non-poor. In reality, subjective well-being does not suddenly improve above any given poverty line. This makes using a fixed poverty line to define destitution as a binary 'yes/no' problematic. Therefore, while the International Poverty Line is useful for understanding the changes in living conditions of the very poorest of the world, we must also take into account higher poverty lines reflecting the fact that living conditions at higher thresholds can still be destitute.",
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"text": "And second, the fact that people with very low incomes tend to be dissatisfied with their living standards shows that it would be incorrect to take ",
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"url": "https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=poor+but+happy&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3jtfEo4rQAhVJIcAKHSjuAoQQ_AUICCgB&biw=2560&bih=1272&gws_rd=cr&ei=lfcZWPrQCezQgAa07ZmQCw",
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"text": " on what 'life in poverty' is like. As the data shows, there is just no empirical evidence that would suggest that living with very low consumption levels is romantic.",
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"text": "A disregard for or disinterest in poverty estimates that are calculated on the basis of low consumption and income levels is partly explained by the fact that it can be very difficult for people to imagine what it is like to\u00a0live with very little. Even economists who think a lot about income and poverty find it difficult to understand what it means to live on a given income level.\u00a0It is just hard to picture what life is like when all you know is a\u00a0\"dollar-per-day\" figure.",
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"text": "To address this, Anna Rosling R\u00f6nnlund put together\u00a0a captivating, visual project at Gapminder.org in which she portrays the living conditions of people living at different income levels. In ",
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"text": " you can find portraits of families and see how they cook, what they eat, how they sleep, what toilets they have available, what their children's toys look like, and much more.",
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"text": "GDP per capita data from the World Bank. Survey data on the satisfaction with living standards is from the ",
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"text": ". The idea for this chart is taken from Deaton (2010) \u2013 ",
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"text": ". In American Economic Review, 100, 1, 5--34. The lightly-shaded circles are for 2006, the darker circles for 2007, and the darkest circles are for 2008.",
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"title": "What do poor people think about poverty?",
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"excerpt": "Some have a romantic view of what life on extremely little is like. But survey data from those living in poverty doesn\u2019t support this.",
"dateline": "April 8, 2017",
"subtitle": "Some have a romantic view of what life on extremely little is like. But we see from survey data that this is romantic view is not shared by those living in poverty themselves.",
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1 | 2023-10-13 16:10:58 | 2017-04-08 09:15:00 | 2023-12-28 16:31:11 | unlisted | ALBJ4LtxcWcLsQ1oN1d1vwcTHIcFa0avGzdJaiuvh9git7cJH880EVTI9pyGIvbtdBxIsyHuTvRpzcWGa-WVIA | One of the most important trends that we can learn from the work of social scientists and historians is that extreme poverty, as measured by people's level of consumption, has fallen considerably around the world in the [last two centuries](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-in-poverty-relative-to-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL). But why should we care? Is it not the case that poor people might have less consumption but enjoy their lives just as much—or even more—than people with much higher consumption levels? One way to find out is to simply ask. Subjective views are an important way of measuring welfare. This is what the _Gallup Organization_ did. The [Gallup World Poll](https://www.gallup.com/analytics/232838/world-poll.aspx) asked people around the world what they thought about their standard of living—not only about their income. The following chart compares the answers of people in different countries with the average income in those countries. It shows that, broadly speaking, people living in poorer countries tend to be less satisfied with their living standards. ##### Dissatisfaction with standard of living vs GDP per capita1 <Image filename="dissatisfied-vs-income.png" alt=""/> This suggests that economic prosperity is not a vain, unimportant goal but rather a means for a better life. The correlation between rising incomes and higher self-reported life satisfaction is shown in our topic page [on happiness](http:///happiness-and-life-satisfaction/). This is more than a technical point about how to measure welfare. It is an assertion that matters for how we understand and interpret development. First, the smooth relationship between income and subjective well-being highlights the difficulties that arise from using a fixed threshold above which people are abruptly considered to be non-poor. In reality, subjective well-being does not suddenly improve above any given poverty line. This makes using a fixed poverty line to define destitution as a binary 'yes/no' problematic. Therefore, while the International Poverty Line is useful for understanding the changes in living conditions of the very poorest of the world, we must also take into account higher poverty lines reflecting the fact that living conditions at higher thresholds can still be destitute. And second, the fact that people with very low incomes tend to be dissatisfied with their living standards shows that it would be incorrect to take [a romantic view](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=poor+but+happy&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3jtfEo4rQAhVJIcAKHSjuAoQQ_AUICCgB&biw=2560&bih=1272&gws_rd=cr&ei=lfcZWPrQCezQgAa07ZmQCw) on what 'life in poverty' is like. As the data shows, there is just no empirical evidence that would suggest that living with very low consumption levels is romantic. A disregard for or disinterest in poverty estimates that are calculated on the basis of low consumption and income levels is partly explained by the fact that it can be very difficult for people to imagine what it is like to live with very little. Even economists who think a lot about income and poverty find it difficult to understand what it means to live on a given income level. It is just hard to picture what life is like when all you know is a "dollar-per-day" figure. To address this, Anna Rosling Rönnlund put together a captivating, visual project at Gapminder.org in which she portrays the living conditions of people living at different income levels. In _[Dollar Street](https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street/matrix)_ you can find portraits of families and see how they cook, what they eat, how they sleep, what toilets they have available, what their children's toys look like, and much more. GDP per capita data from the World Bank. Survey data on the satisfaction with living standards is from the [Gallup World Poll](http://www.gallup.com/services/170945/world-poll.aspx). The idea for this chart is taken from Deaton (2010) – [Price Indexes, Inequality, and the Measurement of World Poverty](https://rpds.princeton.edu/sites/rpds/files/media/deaton_price_indexes_inequality_and_the_measurement_of_world_poverty_aer.pdf). In American Economic Review, 100, 1, 5--34. The lightly-shaded circles are for 2006, the darker circles for 2007, and the darkest circles are for 2008. | What do poor people think about poverty? |