Welcome to Citizendium

Agriculture Earth Sciences Journalism Physics Anthropology Economics Law Politics Archaeology Education Library & Info. Sci. Psychology Architecture Engineering Linguistics Religion Astronomy Food Science Literature Robotics Biology Games Mathematics Sociology Business Geography Media Sports Chemistry Health Sciences Military Theater Classics History Music Topic Informant Computers Hobbies Philosophy Visual Arts Help Write Articles about our World Welcome to Citizendium, a wiki for providing free knowledge where authors use their real names. We write the kinds of encyclopedia-style articles that Wikipedia and other sites can't write. We regard information as a public good and welcome anyone who wants to share their knowledge on virtually any subject. Our online community prides itself on being congenial and supportive. Our goals have changed. Please read about who we are in 2021. See Recent Changes—an overview of articles we are writing now. Become a member--it's free! Join via our We are no longer using Google Docs to take applications. Please do this instead: Instructions for joining this wiki. Start a new article Improve existing articles Quick Start | How to collaborate | How to format pages Wikipedians are very welcome! Read our policies. We strive for objectivity. We prefer new material but importing is allowed in certain conditions. See articles considered ready for reading. We are a partner site with Physics Forums; see this. Our help system and forum Questions and answers to help you find the information you need Please help today! Please make your donations here. Donations go to keep our servers running. See our financial report.

Some of our finest Citable Articles (146) Developed Articles (1,128) (16,467 total articles) He who keeps on reviewing his old knowledge and acquiring new knowledge may become a teacher of others. — Confucius        —add a quotation about knowledge or writing Featured Article: Poverty The Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009. Poverty is deprivation based on lack of material resources. The concept is value-based and political. Hence its definition, causes and remedies (and the possibility of remedies) are highly contentious. The word poverty may also be used figuratively to indicate a lack, instead of material goods or money, of any kind of quality, as in a poverty of imagination. Definitions Primary and secondary poverty The use of the terms primary and secondary poverty dates back to Seebohm Rowntree, who conducted the second British survey to calculate the extent of poverty. This was carried out in York and was published in 1899. He defined primary poverty as having insufficient income to “obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency”. In secondary poverty, the income “would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed by some other expenditure.” Even with these rigorous criteria he found that 9.9% of the population was in primary poverty and a further 17.9% in secondary. Absolute and comparative poverty More recent definitions tend to use the terms absolute and comparative poverty. Absolute is in line with Rowntree's primary poverty, but comparative poverty is usually expressed in terms of ability to play a part in the society in which a person lives. Comparative poverty will thus vary from one country to another. The difficulty of definition is illustrated by the fact that a recession can actually reduce "poverty". Causes of poverty The causes of poverty most often considered are: Character defects An established “culture of poverty”, with low expectations handed down from one generation to another Unemployment Irregular employment, and/or low pay Position in the life cycle (see below) and household size Disability Structural inequality, both within countries and between countries. (R H Tawney: “What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches”) As noted above, most of these, or the extent to which they can be, or should be changed, are matters of heated controversy. Footnotes Continued...