Last Sunday, the Catholic Church celebrated the International Day of the Poor. Very often we associate poverty with a lack of access to basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter. Since there are still a number of persons who do indeed lack such an access, we tend to stop there. Such a description also sits very nicely with the economic dimension of poverty.
However, it is not just a question of meeting basic needs. Unless people have access to adequate health services, social security services and education services, they can never get out of the state of poverty. Therefore, we need to start extending the net that captures poor people.
We also refer to the people living below the poverty line or who are at risk of poverty. Each country tends to have its own definition. According to the National Statistics Office, the national equivalised income that is determined to constitute the poverty line is €10,222. Just over 85,000 persons, representing 16.9 per cent of the persons living in Malta, are considered to be at risk of poverty. If we extend the definition to include persons who are at risk of social exclusion, the number increases to 103,000.
The gini coefficient, which is a measure of income inequality, was 31.1 in 2021, compared to 29.9 in 2020.
The higher the gini coefficient, the higher the level of income inequality. When speaking of poverty one can easily get lost in numbers and then determine whether a number is too high or too low. However, we must appreciate that poverty is very much a personal issue and whether there are 10,000 or 50,000 or a 100,000 who are at risk of poverty, it is immaterial. It will always remain a personal tragedy for that individual and their family.
Moreover, the country’s social programme that has been promoted by successive governments without exception is to widen the social welfare net as much as possible, with the result that today we have free education, free health and a range of social benefits. This may quieten our conscience slightly as we believe that, at least, there is someone who is looking after the poor.
We need to start extending the net that captures poor people
The question which is most pertinent to ask is whether we need to look at the so-called new poor in our society, while remaining within the economic perspective. For example, it is known that there is a link between education and poverty as most poor persons have a low level of education. We also know that in any society there will always be a percentage of the population who are unable to go beyond a certain level in their educational attainment.
Will such educationally poor persons be condemned to live at the risk of poverty as a consequence?
Many persons may not be poor materially but still have a quality of life which is bad, whichever way one looks at it. Again, using an example, we can mention those persons who are living in areas which have been a building site for years, with constant construction work and a high level of noise and air pollution, not to mention potential dangers of buildings collapsing. Will this low quality of life caused by the construction sector be the cause of economic poverty for such persons?
We could add other vulnerable persons such as those whose work leads to excessive stress and anxiety and have no one to turn to; and those who for some reason or other suffer injustices at work (and let us not fool ourselves that such cases happen only in the public sector, they happen everywhere) to the point that they feel they must get away; and those who feel lonely or bullied at work such that work becomes like hell on earth.
These are all cases which have economic consequences for the individual and for the country. They are cases that lead to poverty.
In our country, as in the rest of the world, we do have persons who suffer from material poverty. On the other hand, we need to face up to the fact that we have the new poor, who, if left uncared for, would also fall into the material poverty trap. Our economy cannot ignore such persons and simply gloat at our growth rate.