{"id":68059,"date":"2022-06-07T05:49:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T09:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=68059"},"modified":"2022-06-16T17:53:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T21:53:56","slug":"amartya-sen-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/amartya-sen-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Amartya Sen: Poverty Is About More Than Just Income"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is poverty, according to Amartya Sen? How can we approach poverty as a social problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Development as Freedom<\/em>, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen argues that economic development is about more than increasing wealth\u2014it must be about expanding freedom. Poverty shouldn’t be just about the amount of income you make; it’s also about the lack of rights you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about this ethical approach by Amartya Sen, poverty as capability deprivation, and development as freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Amartya Sen on Poverty and Economic Development <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In redefining development as freedom, Amartya Sen takes a holistic view of poverty and characterizes it as impeding people\u2019s ability to lead the lives they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most definitions of poverty are based only on the level of income. However, poverty has a much more nuanced definition, according to Amartya Sen. Poverty isn’t solely defined by income, and doesn’t tell the whole story of well-being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen contends that income and wealth are only important as a means<\/em> to something else, not for their own sake. <\/strong>As such, poverty is about more than low income; it\u2019s about a lack of opportunity. Conversely, development is about more than simply increasing wealth; it\u2019s about increasing <\/em>opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen contends that poverty is harmful and unjust because it deprives people of the ability to lead the lives they want<\/strong>, and development is valuable because it allows people to improve their lives as they<\/em> see fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen and the Human Development Index<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sen\u2019s work on redefining poverty has had practical implications for policy-making. With Sen\u2019s help, the United Nations established the Human Development Index<\/a>, which provides a more comprehensive metric of welfare than just income. The index is composed of three parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Life expectancy at birth<\/li>
  2. Years of schooling per adult and expected schooling of children<\/li>
  3. Gross National Income per capita<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Each part is indexed on a scale from 0 to 1, and the three scores are then averaged to get a single score from 0 to 1. The UN believes this \u201ccapabilities approach\u201d to development offers a more useful metric than GDP or GNI because health and education affect development as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    By utilizing the Human Development Index, Sen hopes to provide a clearer picture of advances in developing nations, as well as to identify the areas that still require improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Poverty as \u201cCapability Deprivation\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Amartya Sen defines poverty as \u201ccapability deprivation,\u201d <\/strong>(he also refers to it as \u201cunfreedom\u201d)\u2014 <\/strong>which means <\/strong>hindering people\u2019s chances to improve their station in life. <\/strong>There are two main benefits to viewing poverty in this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. It considers the intrinsic<\/em> importance of freedom, which Sen says all people value.<\/li>
    2. Other factors besides low income contribute to a lack of capability, which makes the income approach inadequate.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Sen explains that forms of capability deprivation and unfreedom include the processes and opportunities that affect a person\u2019s welfare. For example, violations of human rights and civil liberties are one form of unfreedom because they disrupt the process<\/em> of free decision-making<\/a>. Famines, poor sanitation, and the threat of disease are other forms because they diminish opportunities<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      (Shortform note: Sen takes issue with all definitions of poverty that use income as the sole metric. There are multiple income-centered definitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n