What do the better-off and the poor owe one another?
Some people live in deep want while others in the same country, or the same world, have more than they need. What does the tradition say we owe those who have little, and what does a society gain or lose by the gap?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses (for living in poverty).
How to read the data
The figure is the share of people living below a very low line, set at the same buying power in every country. Surveys come every few years, so some years are estimates and some countries have gaps.
Key terms
Extreme poverty line
A very low daily amount, adjusted for what money buys in each country.
Purchasing power
How much a unit of money can buy in a given place.
Household survey
A sample of homes asked about their spending or income.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
Food, shelter and care now, a fair chance to work their way out, and to be treated as people with a claim and not as a problem.
To keep what they have earned or been given, to be trusted to give freely, and to know that what they share is used well.
A civic life that holds together, without gaps so wide that rich and poor become strangers to one another, or each fears the other.
To raise what is needed fairly, to keep order, and to do what only the whole community can do for those who cannot help themselves, without discouraging work.
For discussion
What does a person who has more than they need owe to someone in want, and is it a debt of justice or a gift of charity?
How wide a gap between the poor and the well-off can a community bear before it stops being one community?
What may a government fairly ask of those who have more, and what may it ask in return of those it helps, so that help does not take away the dignity of work?
