Abstract

The three basic meanings of the concept of poverty: The concept of poverty, as the phenomenon it describes, has a respectable antiquity. Its etymology leads us to the Latin word paupertas, originally referring to the condition of pauperism which means, literally, give birth or father a bit and applied to livestock and, by derivation, poor soil, i.e., infertile or low performance. This is the origin of the concept of absolute poverty. Also emerged early on the concept of poverty as opposed to wealth, where the sense of each of these terms is defined by the relationship itself between them. From there comes the concept of relative poverty.

Global Poverty

Poverty as lack of human development

The more modern and fashionable on poverty i.e. bears the seal of the Nobel Prize Amartya Sen is inspired by the primal sense of poverty and lack of ability to produce or to realize their productive potential. In this approach the emphasis is less on the outcome (being poor in the sense of not having enough income or assets) but being poor and unable to reach a minimum acceptable performance by being deprived of vital capacity, possibilities and basic rights to do so.

Absolute poverty

This is after seeing the poverty, focusing on the capabilities to implement their own potential, opposes another equally ancient definition, one that sees poverty and poor condition (pauper) as a state of deprivation or lack resources to acquire a "basket of goods and services" necessary for living a healthy minimum.  This allowed defining two types of poverty, the "primary poverty" and "secondary poverty". Secondary poverty lived in families that could reach the minimum but did not have a surplus (Robert, 25).

Relative poverty

Faced with this approach or way of measuring poverty has been another classic approach also points to the possibility of acquiring a basket of goods and services that can ensure a dignified life in accordance with the conventions and standards of a given society. In this case we have the so-called relative poverty, which varies with the social development that will determine, in every age and society, that minimum consumption under which more to do with survival is threatened falls into a state of exclusion or inability to participate in social life. The classic example of this form of poverty was given by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations when he wrote: "For goods needed understand not only essential for the sustenance of life, but all those whose absence is, according to the customs of a country, something unseemly among people of good reputation, even among the lower class (europesworld.org, 2011).

The relative poverty and inequality

Another very common but highly questionable to use the concept of relative poverty is synonymous with just doing some measure of income distribution in a given country. This apparent relative poverty is usually defined from an income threshold measured as a percentage of average income of the respective country. For example, it is usual to call poor or "at risk of poverty" to all those who have less than 60% of average disposable income of the society in which they ...