Poverty in Canada: Relative Poverty Measurement Essay

Before discussing the extent of poverty in Australia, it is first crucial to mention the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute Poverty is a situation where deprivation is extreme because people do not have access to the basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. In contrast Relative Poverty is a situation in which the incidence of poverty is measured relative to things such as average weekly earnings or income per head. Therefore poverty, as talked about in Australia is the state where income is insufficient to meet the minimum needs of the household or individual.

A nation-wide social issue in contemporary Canadian society is relative poverty. Universal basic income (UBI), or ‘basic income’, is a model which aims to eliminate it. In this response, I will argue that UBI can reduce relative poverty in Canada. Subsequently, that the reduction of relative poverty will also improve both physical and mental health as well as diminish income discrimination in Canada. Since income inequality not only creates poverty but also is a social determinant of health. To accomplish this, I briefly outline the current state of Canadian poverty, the tenets of UBI, and the benefits that can stem from its establishment. Concludingly, discussing a measuring mechanism to ensure that the relative poverty is being resolved.

Poverty is a serious issue in Canada needs to be addressed promptly. Poverty is not simply about the lack of money an individual has; it is much more than that. The World Bank Organization defines poverty by stating that, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time”. In Canada, 14.9 percent of Canada’s population has low income as Statistics Canada reports, which is roughly about two million of Canadians in poverty or on the verge of poverty. In addition, according to an UNICEF survey, 13.3 percent of Canadian children live in

Is the poverty rate in Canada due a result of relative poverty or absolute poverty? Who is poverty affecting?

Duffy and Mandell portray many themes around poverty in their article “poverty in Canada”, but there is one word that really symbolizes the main theme, and

According to Chapter 1 of the book "Poverty In Canada", poverty refers to conditions where people lack resources to attain proper diet, participate in community activities, and the living conditions in the society they live in. Poverty can be absolute where people do not have enough resources to survive, or relative where people are not able to participate in common daily activities. The groups who are most likely to experience poverty in Canada are Aboriginal Canadians, women, unattached adults, people of color, persons with disabilities, and recent immigrants to Canada. The reason many of these groups live in poverty is because they work low-wage occupations. For groups such as, people with disabilities, people receiving social assistance,

The data is obtained from the US Department of Commerce (DOC) Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). It is measured and calculated by the sum of net earnings (from employment), property income (e.g. stock dividends, interests, rents, etc.) and personal current transfer receipts (e.g. Social Security, Medicaid, insurance benefits, unemployment compensation, etc.) Another very similar concept is per capita (money) income, published by U.S. Census Bureau. Per capita income only considers cash payments and their equivalents received by individuals. It excludes capital gains, gains from the sale of property, withdrawal of bank deposits, tax refunds, insurance payments and the value of income from food stamps, public housing subsidies, medical care, employer contributions for individuals, etc. As a result, the BEA estimates are significantly higher than Census Bureau estimates, two times higher for most states. Moreover, in terms of frequency, BEA collects data and publishes reports quarterly, where US Census is administrated every ten years. All these make per capita personal income a more comprehensive and accurate measure than per capita income in measuring and reflecting a person’s true living standards. Moreover, to offer a more accurate picture of the individual’s purchasing power and living standards, we also need to take into consideration of

Toronto holds onto it 's shameful title: Child poverty capital of Canada, article written by Laurie Monsebraanten, social justice reporter was published on October 13th,2015. According to the article in 2011, $16,456 Measures for the low income of a single person and for a two parent family with two children under the age of 16 the measures of low income was $39,912. This article talks about Toronto having the highest percentage of poverty within the youth community followed by Montreal that is 25%, Winnipeg that is 24%, and Hamilton with 22% of children under 18 years of age growing up in poverty. According to the Revenue Canada tax filer data 140 neighborhoods in Canada have child poverty rates above 40%. The highest concentrations of child poverty in Toronto are in the city 's north-west and five are downtown, including Regent Park which has the highest rate at 63%. Two years ago, Sureya Ibrahim; Community engagement worker created a sewing and catering collectives program for local women in Regent Park to help women use the skills to earn money. Ibrahim has participated in a member of the hall meetings on the issue of anti-poverty efforts. She seeks more training for the youth to get jobs but it 's also challenging because their online access is limited or not assessable at all. This article also points out that the poverty rate for working adults is 24% while just 10% of Toronto seniors live in poverty, children disabilities, Single parent, indigenous, and not white

There is a national consciousness in Canada about global poverty reduction, with 94% of Canadians saying it is important to improve health, education and economic opportunity for the world’s poorest, and 76% of Canadians agreeing we have a moral obligation to help expand health, education, and economic opportunity for the world’s

Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, however, many citizens are below the blurred poverty line. (251). The poverty line in Canada is measured by the LICO-IAT (boooook) and the MBM (253). The resources for those below the poverty line are very poor; food banks and shelters are unable to uphold the amount of people that are in need of them. (252). Among the poor, many people have paid employment, however, it is not enough.

The application of sociological imagination in the analysis of poverty in Canada makes us realize that poverty has social consequences on us all. The use of sociological imagination makes us look beyond the perceptions we may have of the victims of poverty in Canada and open our eyes to the social problems surrounding poverty. It’s a tool that helps us make the connection between experience and the bigger picture. Exploring poverty with critical thinking brings about awareness that it is about more then an individual’s personal failings that contribute to poverty and affects society as a whole. There are many factors at play that contribute to poverty in Canada and this makes it a social problem.

Canada is regarded as one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. This indication is contrary to the well-being reality affecting Canadians. Despite being part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), Canada has lagged behind her otherwise wealthy counterparts in the industrialized countries being position 19 out of 22 nations (Breznitz and Zysman, 2013). This has been attributed to the precarious levels of poverty in a majority of Canadian households. The country has not recognized any official poverty measurement although other universal measures such as LICO is used for measuring relative poverty, a more determinable measure of poverty for wealthy countries.

Currently there are many problems and flaws with the way the Canadian government’s policies deal with healthcare, income inequality and poverty. Time to time changes in policies have been made, perhaps to improve these issues, however, the gap between rich and poor keeps increasing and there is very little improvement in healthcare and the economy. In fact, healthcare keeps on becoming costly. Major issues like income inequality and poverty are not being taken care of by the government. According to Dr. Raphael (2002) poverty is caused by several reasons such as inequality in people’s income, weak social services and lack of other social supports (p.VI). He states, “Poverty directly harms the health of those with low incomes while income

In the UK the definition used for absolute poverty is a household living on less than 60% of the median household income. While this is described as absolute poverty the way that it is measured against other incomes is, arguably, relative poverty. Whichever definition of poverty this figure should fall under, this definition will be used to determine whether poverty has been eliminated.

Absolute poverty (AP) is where a person or family lack the bare minimums for healthy survival, referring to a person's living needs of water, food, clothing and shelter (Browne, 2009). AP is measured by pricing these basic necessities and drawing up a poverty line, those incomes that fall below the line are defined as poor (Haralambos & Holborn, 2008). There has been attempts to define and operationalise the concept of AP; in 1995 The United Nations defined AP as a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food and water, shelter, education and information; it depends not only on income but also access to services, such as schools and hospitals (Haralambos & Holborn, 2008). In America they use $1 a day threshold for serving with the minimum needs but, in the UK incomes are not this low, so these thresholds have no importance (The poverty site, 2007).  In 2015-16 30% (18.9 million) of individuals where living in households with income below minimum income standards it increased over a 5th since 2008 to 2012 (JFR, d.u.).