Poverty — definitional problems

Poverty has always existed; nevertheless, one must seek to reduce it, because it is an evil. However, before taking action in this direction, it is necessary to indicate what the problem is, what its essence is, hence it is necessary to define poverty. This is extremely important both from a research-theoretical as well as a practical perspective. Difficulties in establishing a single universal definition of poverty stem from the complexity and multidimensionality of this matter. Contemporary researchers agree that poverty does not have a solely economic dimension, because the other aspects are also important — such as cultural, psychological. The way of defining poverty has changed with increasing knowledge of the subject. When creating definitions of poverty, the assumption must be that the evil of poverty is real, so it is not a subjective assessment.