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TERM PAPER ABOUT POVERTY I. INTRODUCTION : One of the major problems that continue to plaque the Philippines is poverty. Despite the said efforts of both government and business firms many Filipinos remain in need. It is not a simple problem because nowadays we are facing mass poverty. For all the magnificent testimonies to man’s superior skill and intellect in producing today’s level of cultural development, he still has to find the solution to mass poverty. Whether the government would admit it or not, it is very clear even with our bare eyes that we our suffering a lot from poverty. But what is poverty anyway? Let first define poverty so we can have a clear understanding with what are we going to discuss. From a Webster dictionary, poverty means ‘lack of money or material possessions’. While from the book of Villegas entitled ‘Guide to Economics for Filipinos’ he stated that poverty or being poor means ‘experiencing a low quality of life deprived of both the material and non material requirements that allow an individual to live like a human being’. According to ‘Addison Wesley Economics’ by Richard M. Hodgetts’ said most of people regard poverty as ‘a condition in which people are unable to buy the minimal amount of food, clothing and shelter that is required for existence’. Over all there are a lot of ways to define poverty, it depends on how the person thinks or how does the person relate it to his life personal experiences. Obviously there are a lot more economic problems or short comings could be discussed and in fact lot easier, but I tend to dig the deepest difficulties face by the Filipinos now a day. That is poverty. Let’s look at three concepts of poverty: first relative poverty, second absolute poverty and last poverty according to the perception of the people themselves. Relative poverty pertains to those whose income or consumption share is at

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