The poverty line in the UK is £119 a week for a single person, £333 a week for a couple with children. That's £17 a day minimum and £47.57 a day maximum.
22% of people live unde this poverty line.
That is relative poverty.
Internationally, the poverty line is $1.25 a day. That's 78 pence.
1.4 billion people live underneath the poverty line.
That is absolute poverty.
When charity allocation is being decided, a distinction is made between relative and absolute poverty. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people fail to recognise the difference. I'm not denying that poverty in the UK is bad- that would be utterly stupid. Nor am I saying that there shouldn't be movements to end it. That would be even stupider.
What I'm saying is that, when the international aid budget increases and the Daily Mail inevitably starts its tribal whinging, look beyond the scare-mongering and towards what poverty actually means.
I'd originally typed a small bit of reasoning as to why we really give foreign aid to those below the poverty line, with some of my cynicism, then I realised something - you actually look at the Fail?
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