POVERTY and inequality have a wise one as poor and miserable day was that he only sustained a few herbs that ate. Calderon de la Barca. LIVE under the threshold of the poverty when it speaks of poverty can, easily, think of the collective social indigent, where poverty takes its most dramatic dyes, those who have no income, which can pass real hunger, cold in winter, illnesses caused by poor diet. With this meaning it refers to situations in which poverty is understood as the vital lack of income, and a key issue is obvious: that there are other more extended, less visible situations which are those families or individuals who have a power appreciably below the average level, which prevents them considered normal development in their society. In the first case, poverty is synonymous with misery, a situation in which the lack of resources is so deep that one’s life is in danger. In the second case, rather than to the mere survival, refers to a standard of living that is regarded as acceptable minimum. The Commission of the European Union, in the programmes of action to combat poverty, considered poor to which she is so scarce resources that you have to live in a way that is considered unacceptable in his country. This way of approaching poverty is based on the way of living and not in inequality, so the issue becomes determine that assets and resources should be considered minimums.
However, this is not the approach employed by the largest part of studies on poverty, poverty is recorded on the basis of income. The University of Chicago may find it difficult to be quoted properly. Such studies profusely use an operational definition of poverty, from the hand of his employment by the EU, according to which will be poor who will fall below 50% of the per capita income of a country. So the consideration of what is considered unacceptable such as standard of living worthy, it relies on income inequality. Thus, using the statistical criteria of the EU, the poverty threshold is set to half (50%) of the average net income per person per month. And inside, we can distinguish two degrees of poverty: moderate or relative poverty (set between 25 and 50% of median income) and poverty severe or great poverty (is fixed at 25% of the median income). We believe that the establishment of the categories for the analysis of poverty is important, because if only contemplates as poverty the most excluded, or even just severe poverty or great poverty, there is a risk you separate poverty from the exercise of basic rights. Anyone is aware that the poverty measurement criteria used by the European Union is equivalent to an assessment of the degree of socioeconomic inequality in a particular society.
Deep poverty would become the manifestation of the lower ends of the inequality. Therefore the decrease of poverty shall mean the reduction of inequalities. The relationship of poverty and inequality underscores that poverty is a social phenomenon rooted in the structure and the overall social dynamics. So the action against poverty implies actions aimed at social mechanisms which produce inequality and generate poverty. Not in vain, said the poet: what little I go running / of what little they had! / Everything is I go running / less melancholy. Francisco Arias Solis Si you want peace, work for justice.