Poverty: World, Mexico, USA
Copyright Community Links International, 501c3
March 2012
“Poverty is the worst form of
violence.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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Experience
 Recall a time when you lacked something
profoundly essential OR
 Recall a time when you experienced a sense
of personal injustice and unfairness in
comparison to others in terms of power,
property or privilege.
 Describe the situation and your feelings at
the time.
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What can you buy for $1.25?
 Pack of gum
 Quart of gasoline
 Quart of milk
 4 eggs
 Cup of coffee
 Hallmark card
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1 out of 5
 $1.25 per person per day threshold for extreme
poverty is a standard adopted by the World Bank
and other international organizations to reflect the
minimum consumption and income level needed to
meet a person's basic needs.
 1/5 of the world’s population (1.4 billion people) fall
below this line
 They lack the ability to fulfill basic needs, whether it
means eating only one bowl of rice a day or forgoing
health care when it’s needed most.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2008
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What is Poverty?
 “Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well
being.” (World Bank, 2000)
 Poverty is multi-dimensional
 Reality varies from one country to another
 Pronounced differences in quality of life
across populations
 Many indicators contribute to quality of life
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Well-being
 Capability to function in society
 Poverty arises when people lack key capabilities
- inadequate income or education, or poor
health, or insecurity, or low self-confidence, or
a sense of powerlessness, or the absence of
rights such as freedom of speech.
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Measuring Poverty
Indicator
Income
Housing
Nutrition
Consumption
Education
Medical care
Description
How much we earn
Where and how we live
What & how much we eat
Things we buy and use every day
Access to and ability to go to school
Access to and ability to seek medical and
dental care
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Consumption and Income
 Two common & useful indicators of poverty
 Measured across many segments of population
 Wealthy = those with access to many good &
services in a variety of forms
 Poor = those with access to limited goods &
services
 Monetary values are assigned to the range of
wealthy vs. poor
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What is the Poverty Line?
Copyright Community Links
International, page 10
Poverty Line
 The point at which the level of income and
consumption is insufficient to support a good
quality of life
 Divides poor from the non-poor
 People in poverty – those whose level of income
or consumption is not enough to cover min.
amount of goods and services
 Extreme Poverty Line = Minimum food food
food consumption to sustain life
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Poverty Line
Poor
Non-Poor
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How are Poverty Lines determined?
 Poverty Lines are widely used in international
development
 $1.25 = World Bank’s official international line; the
average of the poverty lines in the world’s poorest
10 to 20 countries
 $2 = median poverty line for all developing
countries.
 Each country has its own poverty line and (naturally)
richer countries tend to have higher lines.
Source: World Bank, New Estimates Reveal Drop In Extreme Poverty 2005-2010
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World Poverty Levels
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Explanation of Previous Graph
 12% of the world population (.88 billion) lives
on $1/day
 20% (1.4 billion) live on $1.25/day
 80% of the world population (5.15 billion) lives
on $10/day
 Only 20% of the world population (1.3 billion)
live above the $10/day poverty line
 We are the 20%
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There is Hope
 The number of people in extreme poverty and
the poverty rate declined in every region of the
developing world during 2005-2008
 This is the first time it ever happened over a
three-year monitoring cycle since the World
Bank started tracking extreme poverty.
 Overall, poverty rates have dropped in the
period 1981-2008
Source: World Bank, New Estimates Reveal Drop In Extreme Poverty 2005-2010
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Poverty Rates: 1981-2008
Source: World Bank, New Estimates Reveal Drop In Extreme Poverty 2005-2010
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Poor by Region: 1981-2008
Source: World Bank, New Estimates Reveal Drop In Extreme Poverty 2005-2010
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# of poor in poverty: 1981-2008
Source: World Bank, New Estimates Reveal Drop In Extreme Poverty 2005-2010
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Why measure poverty?
 Not to lose sight of the mission
 To identify “who are the poor” & to target
appropriate interventions
 To monitor and evaluate projects and policy
interventions geared at helping the poor
 To evaluate the effectiveness of institutions
whose goal is to help them
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Other Ways to View Poverty
Food Supply Poverty
Asset Poverty
Patrimonial Poverty
insufficient resources to meet basic
nutritional needs. This group doesn’t have
enough food let alone anything else
insufficient resources to meet basic needs
of nutrition, health and education. Income
is not enough to secure all 3
insufficient resources to meet all basic
needs including food, clothing, housing,
health services, education & public
transportation. People cannot afford all
these things
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“In a country well governed,
poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed,
wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
Confucius
Poverty in Mexico
Food Supply
Poverty
insufficient resources to meet
basic nutritional needs. This
group doesn’t have enough food
let alone anything else
14% of Mexico
Asset
Poverty
insufficient resources to meet
basic needs of nutrition, health
and education. Income is not
enough to secure all 3
21% of Mexico
Patrimonial
Poverty
insufficient resources to meet all
basic needs including food,
clothing, housing, health
services, education & public
transportation. People cannot
afford all these things
44-60% of Mexico
113 million Total Mexico Population in 2010
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators
Concentrated in rural areas
where there are no hospitals and
only elementary schools
Numbers vary depending on
official Mexican govt statistics
versus unofficial statistics
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Poverty in Mexico
 60% of Mexicans live in some state of poverty
as measured on previous slides
 14% of Mexico population cannot buy enough
food; lives on less than $1/day. This is part of
the .88 billion people worldwide
 5 million more Mexicans fell below the $1/day
poverty line between 2006-2008 (causes linked
to shift from US purchase of biofuels versus
crude oil)
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Poverty in USA
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2010 Poverty rate = 15.1% (46.2 million)
2010 real median US household income = $49,445
2010 family poverty rate = 11.7% (9.2 million)
$22,314 = the weighted average poverty threshold for
a family of four in 2010
 16.3% without health insurance coverage
 2010 was the 4th consecutive annual increase and
largest number in the 52 years for which poverty
estimates have been published
U.S. Census Bureau, published 09/13/2011
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010
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Poverty Thresholds in USA
U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty thresholds by Size of Family and Number of Children
2010
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Side-effects of Poverty
Poverty means….
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Lower Life expectancy at birth
Less access to improved sanitation
Fewer Years of education
Lower Literacy Rate
Smaller Urban population
Fewer Usage / Access to Phones, Computers, Internet
Fewer Cars / Less access to transportation
Lower Carbon Dioxide Emissions
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Side-effects of Poverty
Poverty means….
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More Deaths under age 5
More Deaths caused by infectious disease
Higher Fertility Rate
Higher Population growth
Increased Net Migration Rate
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The World of Seven Billion
Source: National Geographic, March 2011, “The World of Seven Billion”
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“Everyone has an equal right to inequality.”
John Ralston Saul
Inequality in Poverty
 2% of the population owns 50% of the world’s total
wealth / global assets
 1% owns 40% world global assets
 10% owns 85% world global assets
 50% of world's adult population account for 1% global
wealth
 wealth = physical and financial assets, e.g. personal
savings, home, land, stock ownership, -less debts
Source: Study by Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the
United Nations University, 2000, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1222-04.htm
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So what?

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Get informed
Get involved
Get vocal
Get going
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“Focusing your life solely on making a buck
shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks
too little of yourself.
Because it's only when you hitch your wagon
to something larger than yourself that you
realize your true potential.”
Barack Obama
Everyone makes a difference
Contact Us
Community Links International
916 Wren Drive
San Jose, CA 95125
Phone: (408)723-5366
www.commlinks.org
Jim Petkiewicz, Founder, [email protected]
Arturo Ortega Vela, Founder
Appendices
 Distribution of Wealth – Lorenz Curve
 Distribution of Wealth – Gini Coefficient
 What is Gini Coefficient?
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Distribution of Wealth – Lorenz Curve
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Distribution of Wealth - Gini
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What is a Gini Coefficient?
 The Gini coefficient, invented by the Italian statistitian
Corado Gini, is a number between zero and one that
measures the degree of inequality in the distribution
of something.
 The coefficient would register zero (0.0 = minimum
inequality) for a society in which each member
received exactly the same amount.
 A coefficient of one (1.0 = maximum inequality)
would mean one member got everything and the rest
got nothing.
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Gini Coefficient values in the world
 0.2 = historically equalitarian countries like Bulgaria,
Hungary, Poland, the Slovak and Czech republics
 0.6 = Central & South American countries e.g. Brazil
where powerful elites dominate the economy
 0.55 (Cuba in 1953) to 0.22 (Cuba in 1986) Reveals
the trends towards greater equality in Cuba in this
time period
 0.35 (US in ‘70’s), 0.40+ (in 2000’s) and rising. Shows
trend of growth of inequality in USA in last 30 yrs
 0.30 = most European countries and Canada
 0.35 = Japan and some Asian countries
 0.45+ = most African countries
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