DIY: Measuring Global, Regional Poverty Using PovcalNet, the Online Computational Tool behind the World Bank’s Poverty Statistics by Shaohua Chen.
I’m surprised some Republican in the U.S. House or Senate isn’t citing Povcalnet as evidence there is no poverty in the United States.
The trick of course is in how you define “poverty.”
The World Bank uses $1, $1.25 and $2.00 a day as poverty lines.
While there is widespread global hunger and disease, is income sufficient to participate in the global economy really the best measure for poverty?
If the documentaries are to be believed, there are tribes of Indians who live in the rain forests of Brazil, quite healthily, without any form of money at all.
They are not buying iPods with foreign music to replace their own but that isn’t being impoverished. Is it?
There is the related issue that someone else is classifying people as impoverished.
I wonder how they would classify themselves?
Statistics could be made more transparent through the use of topic maps.