Britain-Measuring-poverty---英国-衡量贫困.docxVIP

Britain?Measuring?poverty 英国 衡量贫困 The?end?of?the?line 贫困终止 The?government?sets?out?to?redefine?what?it?means?to?be?poor 政府着手重新定义贫穷 When?Seebohm?Rowntree,?a?chocolate-maker?and?pioneering?social?researcher,?began?measuringpoverty?in?York?in?1899,?heworked?out?the?minimum?needed?to?buy?enough?food?for?“physical?efficiency”.?In?1935,?when?he?repeated?the?study,?Rowntree?addedallowances?for?cigarettes,?newspapers?and?a?holiday.?By?1951?he?concluded?that?poverty?was?on?its?way?towards?being?eradicated,with?only?pockets?among?the?elderly?left,?and?stopped?counting. 1899年，当巧克力制造商和社会学家先驱的西伯姆·朗特里（Seebohm?Rowntree）在约克（York）开始测量贫困，他提出了“最低温饱线”的理论。在1935年，在反复研究之后，他又推行了关于香烟，报纸以及假期的补贴制度。并在1951年的时候，他得出结论，称除了部分老人外，若按此方法进行下去将会贫困将会得到消除，因此他停下了研究的脚步。 Few?now?experience?the?raw?penury?of?Rowntree’s?day.?But?measuring?poverty?remains?an?obsession.?In?its?dying?days?the?lastLabour?government?passed?a?law?committing?its?successors?to?reduce?child?poverty.?That?is?causing?trouble?for?the?present?lot.?Underthe?law,?poverty?is?defined?primarily?in?relative?terms:?families?with?less?than?60%?of?the?median?income?are?considered?to?be?poor .On ?November?15th?Iain?Duncan?Smith,?the?welfare?secretary,?was? set?to? launch? a?consultation?to?come?up?with?a?better?definition.He?wants?to?include?things?that?he?regards?as?the?real?causes?of?want:?worklessness,?educational?failure?and?drug?and?alcoholdependency. 现在很少有人能体验到朗特里时代的贫困。但是测衡贫困至今仍是个谜题。在上一届工党最后的执政日子里，通过了一项关于他们下届将会减少儿童贫困的法案。这对当下执政者造成了许多困扰。根据这项法律，贫穷的定义是相当于而言的：当家庭的收入低于收入中位数(median?income)的60%时，即被认为是贫困。在11月15日，福利大臣伊恩·邓肯·史密斯（Iain?Duncan?Smith）着手组织咨询讨论，为其寻找一个更好的定义。他希望能把他认为真正导致贫困的原因加入进去即失业，辍学，吸毒以及酗酒。 There?are?several?problems?with?the?current?measure.?Because?it?is?relative,?it?is?influenced?by?changes?in?overall?earnings.?Figuresreleased?over?the?summer?showed?a?sharp?reduction?in?child?poverty?over?the?last?year—mostly?the?result?of?falling?median?incomesrather?than?a?genuine?improvement.?The?measure?fails?to?take?into?account?the?quality?of