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posted by [identity profile] dreamshark.livejournal.com at 05:29pm on 01/04/2007
It is interesting, but a little misleading, I think. People who live on pennies a day are generally not living in an economy based on cash. Most often they are rural populations who grow their own food and barter for most of the rest of their daily needs. So it's not surprising that the things they do spend their money on are things like spices they can't grow themselves, special celebrations, health care and education.

When their economies move more towards cash and less towards self-sufficiency, these people end up handling more money. This doesn't necessarily make them less poor. So I'm not sure that it's an improvement or a sign of hope that fewer people are living on pennies a day. It may just mean that fewer people are able to grow their own food now.
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posted by [identity profile] skylarker.livejournal.com at 07:55pm on 01/04/2007
Good points. It's hard to use money as a gauge of wealth, or poverty. And I wonder if there's a standard-of-living measure that includes the level of stress as well as levels of physical needs met. It seems like a lot of people in our wealthy nation live in continual stress even when the basic physical needs and a lot of extras are available. (Working more hours, less vacation & leisure time, etc. than in the past.)
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