Global Poverty EssayThe definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, English magistrates decided that a minimum income should be the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent. Today, the Census Bureau defines the threshold of global poverty as the minimum amount of money families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one-third of their income for food.The term underclass has been applied by some social scientists to a population of people, concentrated in an inner city, who are persistently poor, unemployed, and dependent on welfare, with an emphasis on persistently. Initially, sociologist William Julius Wilson championed the concept to describe the plight of the truly disadvantaged. But he and a number of other sociologists have since expressed concern that the term underclass is being misused by some journalists and political conservatives to argue that the poor have created their own plight and are to blame for their poverty (Hinkle, 1994).
