Introduction: How Should We Think a

Introduction: How Should We Think about Poverty and Development?

Most of the world is enjoying the best standard of living, the greatest wealth, and the greatest freedom to live valuable and meaningful lives of any time in human history. But at the same time vast numbers of people are living lives of stark deprivation which are made even more appalling by the contrast. Indeed, it is the perspicuous contrast between the quality of life open to some people but not others that both defines and condemns poverty in the contemporary world: poverty is an unnecessary state of deprivation that can and should be remedied. In the poor world the general term for the removal of entrenched deprivation is ‘development’.
Moreover, remediable deprivation exists not only in faraway places with small economies, armed conflicts, or government repression, but also within the rich world, with its homeless, jobless, sick, and socially excluded or stigmatised. Deprivation can co-exist with great opulence. For instance, even in a relatively wealthy country with an effective welfare state, where urgent and straightforward human physiological needs are largely met, there may be a great deal of absolutely real ‘relative poverty’, such as deprivation in the “social bases of selfrespect” (cf Rawls 1999). The rich world too seems to be in need of development.
We are continually confronted with images of poverty and its dramatic consequences for human lives on our television screens and newspapers, and also with public debate about how to understand it and what to do about it. But poverty is so pervasive that it seems to escape human comprehension let alone solution. There are vast numbers of people affected in many different contexts. Their poverty is apparent in many different ways, from poor health to disabilities to lack of opportunities or aspirations. The causes of poverty are likewise numerous and include the interaction of physiological, environmental, economic, social, and political factors.
The basic concern is with our capability to lead the kinds of lives we have reason to value. (Sen 1999a, 285)

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Introduction: How Should We Think about Poverty and Development? Most of the world is enjoying the best standard of living, the greatest wealth, and the greatest freedom to live valuable and meaningful lives of any time in human history. But at the same time vast numbers of people are living lives of stark deprivation which are made even more appalling by the contrast. Indeed, it is the perspicuous contrast between the quality of life open to some people but not others that both defines and condemns poverty in the contemporary world: poverty is an unnecessary state of deprivation that can and should be remedied. In the poor world the general term for the removal of entrenched deprivation is ‘development’. Moreover, remediable deprivation exists not only in faraway places with small economies, armed conflicts, or government repression, but also within the rich world, with its homeless, jobless, sick, and socially excluded or stigmatised. Deprivation can co-exist with great opulence. For instance, even in a relatively wealthy country with an effective welfare state, where urgent and straightforward human physiological needs are largely met, there may be a great deal of absolutely real ‘relative poverty’, such as deprivation in the “social bases of selfrespect” (cf Rawls 1999). The rich world too seems to be in need of development. Kita terus-menerus dihadapkan dengan gambar kemiskinan dan konsekuensi yang dramatis bagi kehidupan manusia pada layar televisi dan Surat Kabar kami, dan juga dengan debat publik tentang bagaimana untuk memahami itu dan apa yang harus dilakukan tentang itu. Tetapi kemiskinan begitu meluas bahwa tampaknya melarikan diri manusia pemahaman apalagi solusi. Ada sejumlah besar orang-orang yang terkena dalam banyak konteks yang berbeda. Kemiskinan mereka jelas dalam banyak cara yang berbeda, dari kesehatan yang buruk untuk Cacat kurangnya peluang atau aspirasi. Penyebab kemiskinan yang juga banyak dan termasuk interaksi dari faktor fisiologis, lingkungan, ekonomi, sosial, dan politik. Perhatian dasar adalah dengan kemampuan kami untuk memimpin jenis kehidupan kita memiliki alasan untuk nilai. (Sen 1999a, 285)