Noun

Singular poverty

Plural poverties

poverty (plural poverties)

1. The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.
2. Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

Part or all of this page has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Related terms

• poor
• poorness

Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages.

Before the industrial revolution, poverty had mostly been the norm. Poverty reduction has historically been a result of economic growth as increased levels of production, such as modern industrial technology, made more wealth available for those who were otherwise too poor to afford them. Also, investments in modernizing agriculture and increasing yields is considered the core of the antipoverty effort, given three-quarters of the world's poor are rural farmers. Today, continued economic development is constrained by the lack of economic freedoms. Economic liberalization includes extending property rights, especially to land, to the poor, and making financial services, notably savings, accessible. Inefficient institutions, corruption and political instability can also discourage investment. Aid and government support in health, education and infrastructure helps growth by increasing human and physical capital.

Poverty is a state in which an individual, group, or population lack essential elements of life within their societies. This usually has the connotation of a lack of basic survival items like food, clothing, shelter, and health care, or the financial means to obtain these, but can also mean having less tangible problems like social exclusion, dependency, and the ability to participate in society. Its exact meaning varies considerably with context and the social environments involved.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
• 2 Unsourced
  • 2.1 Anonymous
• 3 External links

Sourced

• In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
  • Walter Bagehot, The Waverley Novels (1858)

• Come away; poverty’s catching.
  • Aphra Behn (1640-1689), English dramatist, The Rover, Pt. 2. I. (1681)

• There is a solitude in poverty, but a solitude which restores to each thing its value.
  • Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher. ‘Between Yes and No’, World Review magazine, March 1950

• There's no scandal like rags, nor any crime so shameful as poverty.
  • George Farquhar, The Beaux' Stratagem, Act I, sc. i. (1707)

• The poor ye have always with you.
  • Jesus, the Bible, Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Tue Dec 22 16:30:54 2009