World Poverty

The global standard for poverty is living on less than one dollar per day. I'm not sure what this means. Can anybody actually live on what they ***can buy*** for \$1/day? I certainly doubt it. A subsistence farmer or fisherman could, perhaps, but that's just because most of their actual income is outside the formal economy.

Does anybody know the way they construct such a "standard?"

My real question is whether this measures how people live or just their participation in the money economy. One can imagine an ideally self-sufficient farmer with livestock, garden, and grain who needs almost no money but still eats well and lives comfortably. One can also imagine pretty desperate poverty in the US on \$10/day for somebody with no home.

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