What are the main criticisms of the 'Dollar a day' method of calculating poverty?
Poverty exists throughout the whole world. In all its forms, be it relative or absolute, poverty is a mass epidemic in third-world countries especially. To successfully counter poverty as a whole therefore, it is imperative to compile and calculate the true extent of it. The most respected and most cited compilation of poverty is carried out by the World Bank (bank henceforth).
Critics argue that the fundamental premise on which poverty is calculated, is flawed. It is flawed to such an extent that according to Reddy and Pogge the banks estimate of world poverty is underestimated by 30 - 40%. The erroneous premise is the use of the 'Dollar a day method' as a universal judgement of poverty.
On an international level majority of the residents of the world do not use the Dollar, apart from the U.S and a select few countries.…
