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Start your scheming now for SUNDAY'S WRITE-A-THON! January 10, 2021

Theme: Arts and Recreation Arts and Recreation is this month's topic - what do we do that isn't necessary for survival? From reading to bungee-jumping, as long as it's legal (or about to be legal--marijuana, anyone?)--it's grist for this event. If the theme topic is not for you, please just be a party pooper and drop by to write about anything else! We know that not everybody has Sunday at the same time though, so to make it fair our Sunday lasts 48 hours! Therefore, the Write-a-Thon starts when it is Sunday at midnight (in Sydney) and ends when it becomes Monday in San Francisco.

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Some of our finest Citable Articles (146) Developed Articles (1,128) (16,469 total articles) To study the greatest of the scholars of the past is to enjoy intercourse with superior minds. — A.E. Housman        —add a quotation about knowledge or writing •Did You Know? Featured Article: Poverty The Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009. Poverty is deprivation based on lack of material resources. The concept is value-based and political. Hence its definition, causes and remedies (and the possibility of remedies) are highly contentious. The word poverty may also be used figuratively to indicate a lack, instead of material goods or money, of any kind of quality, as in a poverty of imagination. Definitions Primary and secondary poverty The use of the terms primary and secondary poverty dates back to Seebohm Rowntree, who conducted the second British survey to calculate the extent of poverty. This was carried out in York and was published in 1899. He defined primary poverty as having insufficient income to “obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency”. In secondary poverty, the income “would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed by some other expenditure.” Even with these rigorous criteria he found that 9.9% of the population was in primary poverty and a further 17.9% in secondary. Absolute and comparative poverty More recent definitions tend to use the terms absolute and comparative poverty. Absolute is in line with Rowntree's primary poverty, but comparative poverty is usually expressed in terms of ability to play a part in the society in which a person lives. Comparative poverty will thus vary from one country to another. The difficulty of definition is illustrated by the fact that a recession can actually reduce "poverty". Causes of poverty The causes of poverty most often considered are: Character defects An established “culture of poverty”, with low expectations handed down from one generation to another Unemployment Irregular employment, and/or low pay Position in the life cycle (see below) and household size Disability Structural inequality, both within countries and between countries. (R H Tawney: “What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches”) As noted above, most of these, or the extent to which they can be, or should be changed, are matters of heated controversy. Footnotes