你是穷人吗？_时事_双语阅读-查字典英语网

你是穷人吗？

In Britain a poor household is officially defined as one with an income less than 60 per cent of the median. A law passed by the last government declares an unattainable target of reducing the proportion of children who live in poor households to below 10 per cent by 2020.

在英国，贫困家庭的官方标准是，家庭收入低于英国家庭收入中值的60%。上一届政府通过了一部法案，宣布了一个不可能实现的目标：将贫困家庭儿童的比例在2020年底之前降至10%以下。

No surprise, therefore, that in today’s austere circumstances Iain Duncan Smith, the UK’s work and pensions secretary, has attempted to start a debate about the definition of poverty. But his motives are not entirely cynical: Mr Duncan Smith has a record of real social concern.

因此，在如今提倡节俭的大环境下，英国就业与养老金大臣伊恩·邓肯·史密斯(Iain Duncan Smith)提议重新讨论贫困家庭的标准，也就不足为奇了。但邓肯·史密斯作此提议并非完全出于怀疑一切的动机：从此人过去的所作所为来看，他是真正关心社会问题的。

People who struggle to find enough food to eat are poor. The World Bank’s poverty line is an income of less than $1.25 a day. Financial Times readers, who spend more than that amount on their morning newspaper, are in no position to dispute that judgment. In the past two decades, economic growth in China and India has reduced global poverty by an unprecedented amount. That achievement is not diminished because some individuals in both these countries have become very rich. Fundamentally, poverty is about absolute deprivation.