WHY THE ONE DOLLAR A DAY LINE IS VALUABLE.

WHY THE ONE DOLLAR A DAY GUIDELINE IS VALUABLE. What I find valuable about a poverty guideline (whether $1 a day or $1.25 a day) is that it focuses attention on the way that many people are living. (I prefer the $1 a day test because I think it grabs more attention). This is how low the poverty line is set in Zambia: “In Zambia, say, a poor person is defined as someone who cannot afford to buy at least two to three plates of nshima (a kind of porridge), a sweet potato, a few spoonfuls of oil, a handful of groundnuts and a couple of teaspoons of sugar each day, plus a banana and a chicken twice a week.” I don’t think that having more than that means that one is not poor. What is important to know is that is how some people are living.