相对贫困

相对贫困

与绝对贫困对应的概念是相对贫困。相对贫困是建立在将穷人的生活水平与其他不太贫困的社会成员的生活水平相比较的基础上的,通常这包括对作为研究对象的社会总体平均水平的测度。相对贫困有三个特征:第一,它是一种由社会作出的主观判断。其实际上是社会上多数人对于较低生活水平的一定确认,如有的国家以全国人均收入的一定比例作为贫困标准,而有的国家则以中位收入水平的一定比例作为贫困标准。第二,它具有历史动态性。随着不同时期的社会生产力和生活方式的变化,贫困标准也有很大差别。第三,它具有长期性。相对贫困的实质是不平等,只要社会存在不平等,就存在相对贫困,实际上,由于不平等是常态,因而相对贫困也将普遍存在。

2020年全面建成小康社会之后,中国将整体消除绝对贫困,但相对贫困仍将长期存在。到那时,针对绝对贫困的脱贫攻坚举措要逐步调整为针对相对贫困的日常性帮扶措施,并纳入乡村振兴战略架构下统筹安排。

Relative Poverty

Relative poverty is the result of comparing the living standards of poor people and those of other members of the society. It reveals the overall living conditions of a society as a whole.

Relative poverty has three features:

(1) It is a subjective judgment made by a society, or the majority of the residents, about lower living standards. Some countries take a certain percentage of the per capita income as the poverty threshold, while others use a certain percentage of the median income as the benchmark.

(2) It is a concept that evolves. Over time the baseline for poverty may vary due to changes in social productivity and ways of life.

(3) It is protracted in nature. Relative poverty is in essence inequality. As long as inequality exists, there is relative poverty. Since inequality always exists, relative poverty will exist everywhere.

Absolute poverty will be eliminated in China by 2020, as the country becomes moderately prosperous in all respects. But relative poverty will remain for a long time. Then the measures taken to tackle absolute poverty will gradually evolve into routine assistance to those living in relative poverty, and become part of the rural revitalization strategy.