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from the how-much-less-do-I-have-than-others dept.
Since social scientists and economists began measuring poverty, the definition has never strayed far from a discussion of income.
New research from Georgia Tech economist Shatakshee Dhongde shows there are multiple components of poverty that more accurately describes a household's economic condition. Dhongde looks at "deprivation" more than simply low income, and her work finds that almost 15 percent of Americans are deprived in multiple dimensions.
"This study approaches poverty in a new way," said Dhongde, who recently published "Multi-Dimensional Deprivation in the U.S." in the journal Social Indicators Research.
"We tried to identify what is missing in the literature on poverty, and measure deprivation in six dimensions: health, education, standard of living, security, social connections, and housing quality. When you look at deprivation in these dimensions, you have a better picture of what is really going on with households, especially in developed countries like the United States."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @07:34PM
health : money buys healthcare
education : money buys degrees
standard of living : money buys food
security : money buys bodyguards
social connections : money buys friends
housing quality : money buys houses
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @07:39PM
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @09:16PM
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(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday November 20 2016, @09:48PM
No, it doesn't. It may buy you the illusion of friends, though.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @09:54PM
Bullshit. You should try poverty sometime. As soon as you go broke, all your friends suddenly become too busy to hang out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:03PM
You should try working some time.
You are so busy and tired from busting your ass you never have the opportunity to hang out with friends and they fall off the radar.
I've done both. Misery loves company.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:12PM
It's like you've never heard of nights and weekends, those times when working people have ample opportunity to meet friends.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:16PM
It's like you've never heard of mandatory overtime you self-entitled bourgeois.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:26PM
It's like you've never heard of the 40-hour work week. Your greed legitimizes the abusive practices of capitalist scum, because you want to make your big break into the capitalist class yourself. Keep climbing that golden ladder, aspiring rich asshole.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by t-3 on Monday November 21 2016, @05:53AM
Go fuck yourself. Try working 70 hours a week at $10 an hour and say that shit again. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH JOBS FOR PEOPLE TO REFUSE THEM. When your choices are working 70 hours a week for chump change, selling drugs 100 hours a week for chump change, or starving, you're gonna do what boss man says.
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Monday November 21 2016, @02:34PM
Hey Man you can make a LOT of money selling drugs.
Err, not that I would know.
Hang on, there's someone at the door.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Monday November 21 2016, @02:45PM
You CAN, most people don't. And it's a more stressful job than most - the clientele, the hours, and the necessity of keeping large amounts of cash.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday November 21 2016, @07:34PM
Yes, you can make a lot of money selling drugs. [nytimes.com] An epipen costs about fifty bucks to make, sells for SIX HUNDRED.
Those pharm peddlers, man...
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:28PM
Drinks at the joint, Thursday night. Nobody invite Bob, he can never afford to buy a round.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:24PM
Lazy fucker. REAL working people work nights and weekends too. You've probably never worked 100 hours in one week, in your life. Lazy fuck!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @12:34AM
Hint: those aren't your real friends.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Monday November 21 2016, @09:02AM
Agreed. Those kind of friends are worse than no friends at all. If one is in a friendship relationship for financial reasons, that's not a friend... that's a parasitic relationship.
I will cite most Hollywood friendships I have observed in the media rags as "predatorial". Frankly, I do not think I could tolerate them in my life. Fancy cars. Snobby bitches. Real pain in the ass to try to please them. Spoiled rich brats.
I have no use for "beer friends". I need the kind of friend who will help me when I am down and I will do the same for them.
I do not exchange "gifts". Nor do I buy rounds. Nor do I expect to be treated to any either. Most of this is a damn trap of obligatory behaviour spurred on by those trying to sell overpriced beer. However, if a friend drops by, of course I'll share the same cheap stuff I normally drink if he likes it, or if they like soft drinks, I'll give 'em the carbonator bottle and we'll go outside and shake ourselves up a few drinks off the CO2 bottle I keep out there.
The type of friend I seek is the one who sees I am having a problem with something and helps... just as I have seen others having a problem with something and I pitch in.
Example: An unusual storm hit several years ago and made a huge mess in my neighbor's yard with tree branches. I have a mulcher. So I drag the thing over to his yard and helped him clean up the mess. Later that year, he found me trying to work on my car, and he knew what the problem was and got it running again for me. That kind of thing is for friends. No, I do not expect him to be my servant, nor am I his. Most of our interactions are nothing more than bullshit sessions. Maybe we go off somewhere just for a change of scenery and shoot the bull there.... aka "fishing" or "hunting", but we are both out just for the walk in the woods and could care less if we were "successful hunters". Actually, I had just as soon not shoot anything. I just like looking at things.
I hate gift-giving spirals - I do not engage this with anyone. If they come to me with gifts, now I feel obligated to reciprocate, and usually the only ones benefiting from this are merchants - and most everyone I know is already into debt. Fer crying out loud, don't go further into the debt hole buying something for me - I need very little.
The people I hang around with also need very little. For me, the tax man is the number one taker of money, for as far as stuff goes, I have everything I have a use for, and much more than I need - which is mostly kept so I have things to share with anyone else that may need it. Some people may call me a "hoarder", but the main reason is that I know I do not want to be so dependent on money to buy stuff. I also want to have stuff to give away, because others have also given me so much.
My greatest disappointment is with people who need to be "entertained". I can have a ball making something I want out of something someone else was throwing away.
People who will actually pay to be entertained? Geez! Just the thought of spending a whole afternoon watching someone else do something useless to me is an indication of just how little they value their own creativity.
Currently, I am making an outside lavatory from an old sink and a washing machine one of my neighbors tossed. Also making a battery bank out of an old oven. Its fireproof, so if things get out of hand, at least it won't catch fire. I love building things. Any friends I have will be the same way. As far as I am concerned, "beer friends" can just go take a hike. I flat have no use for them, nor do they have much liking for me. I'd rather be alone, building my stuff, than be caged up with them anyway.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday November 21 2016, @07:06PM
Then they are not friends. I did write that money can give you the illusion of friends, didn't I?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday November 21 2016, @07:27PM
I don't know why someone modded your insightful comment "funny". Like Billie Holiday and many others sang, "When you got money you got lots of friends hangin' 'round your door. But when the money's gone and all the spending ends, they won't be 'round any more."
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @02:35AM
You are probably joking but if not...well...ugh...simple minded foolery...
Poverty measures are VERY hard to compare worldwide. It is well recognised money measure (e.g. 60% of avg or median wage or similar) is quite obviously BS and subject to too many caveats.
- If wages go up, so does poverty....even if nothing else changes!
- Measures of inflations are somewhat arbitrary (in my country house prices are not covered in inflation!) and do not effect all people equally.
- Tax situations and so forth.
- Cost of basic services.
Very hard to wrap this all up with a basic monetary measure that is comparable internationally and across decades and macroeconomic changes
This seems like a MUCH more sensible measure and a subtle move from blunt, idiotic, measures such as the one above or GDP and a move to sensible, realistic measures like the article states and the "happiness index" respectively.
Of course neo-libs etc will hate it because poverty is something best ignored....