How poor is poor?

When I am in danger of losing the roof over my head.

When you can no longer afford the necessities: food, clothing, and shelter.

And medicine.

Yes Eva, and medicine.

When your daily meal is a bowl of rice, you are really poor - if you don't know where tomorrows bowl is coming from.

The question is subjective, people come to britain from third world countries and think their immediate standard of living is palatial, and if last week they lost half their family in the flooding of the Bangladesh estuary, then that perception would be well justified.

We have millions of people in this country however, who's standard of living is so low it is unacceptable in my view, given the overall wealth of this country, it is only five years ago that the labour government introduced a minimum wage of £3.60 (about $5 per hour) before that millions were working for as little as £1 an hour.

In my opinion anyone working for minimum wage is poor.

Ossobuco:
When I am in danger of losing the roof over my head.

What do you mean by this? unable to pay rent or mortgage?

to anyone out there!
Would you consider yourself poor if you have no computer?

Would you consider yourself poor if you have cannot afford to pay your ISP?

I understand that people like me are wealthy compared to many in serious poverty. However, an older person in the US with a relatively low income that is also variable in amount and inconsistent in timing may have trouble keeping up with the bills that come in to pay for housing, heat, electricity, water, medical insurance/care, and groceries. If one falls behind, difficulties multiply.

I realize Richard_Tizon that you did not want to delve into spiritualism, however, it's hard to ignore. When we think of the concept of being poor we realize how fortunate we really are. Here is an analogy of where we fit in this world, and although some of you have probably seen this before, I still think it is an interesting read.

http://papertoys.com/ifyouever.htm

kev, The 3.60 pounds is closer to US$6/hour, but who's quibling? Poor has different meanings for different people living in the many countries on this planet. As children, we were very poor. Our home was a classroom partitioned by army blanets where many families lived. Our family was on welfare, because our mother supported four children. However, I consider myself "very rich" today, because we live in a fairly nice house in Silicaon Valley, have money in the bank (retirement investments), do not worry about food or health care, and I can travel to any part of this world whenever and wherever I please several times a year. Not many in this world can do what I can, so I feel very fortunate. We are not wealthy, but comfortable, but looking at our childhood against what we have today, we are rich. All because we have lived in this country of opportunity. When I travel around the world, it reaffirms how lucky we really are.

Colorbook

Thank you! I like the site very much.