Session 2 Historical Views, Definitions, and Measures of Poverty

There are many definitions of poverty as mentioned in the class session slides. I believe that some are correct, but some are more detailed than others. The definition that I agree with the most is Gilder 1891. Gilder says that poverty is " the breakdown of interrelationship of work, family, and faith." I like this definition because when I think of poverty, I think of not only money, but also of family and the higher power that I believe in,God.

An interesting fact that I learned was that poverty is judged by both time and place. I never really thought about people being poor in let's say, the 1900s, would be different than people being poor now. Now, I understand that this makes sense because everything was cheaper back than.

I also learned that more African Americans were considered poor. Some of the reasons were: slavery, low skill and education levels, and moral deficiencies.

Another interesting thing I learned is that there are different ways to measure poverty. I never really put this thought into my head. However, I still do not understand the whole picture. How do you measure poverty? By a number? This just seems a little weird to me. I understand the relative measure, so you can compare and contrast a standard of living.