Poverty: The Humanistic Economics Approach in the 21st Century

Abstract

Mainstream economics defines poverty as an individual’s inability to meet the primary needs at the market’s current price; in the world, monetary poverty is defined by the state, such as the poverty line, poverty ratio, and the international poverty line. According to the World Bank’s International Poverty Line, in 2024, 692 million people worldwide lived below $2.15 per day, considered extreme poverty. This monetary approach cannot capture actual poverty. Since 1970, heterodox economics schools have made some attempts to estimate poverty. Humanistic Economics is a branch of Heterodox Economics that has developed since 1980. Unlike neoclassical economics, humanistic economics is based on ethics. Humanistic economics is concerned with the concept and measurement of poverty not just in monetary, single, static, and marketrelated aspects but also in a human-centric approach shaped in a normative way. This book examines the concept of poverty from a humanistic economics perspective by descriptive method, arguing that a poverty-less society can be possible in the 21st Century if Mainstream Economics’s assumptions and methodology are replaced and involve a humanistic approach to measure poverty.