Inability to afford an adequate standard of consumption. What this standard is once actual starvation is avoided is very much subject to variation between countries and over time. Economists have differed as to whether poverty should be considered in absolute terms, as falling below some fixed minimum consumption level, or whether it should be defined in relative terms, so that poverty means inability to afford what average people have. If an absolute standard is accepted it is at least conceivable that technical progress will eventually lift everybody above the poverty line. If poverty is relative, the poor will be always with us. The poverty line is an income level supposed to be just enough to avoid inadequate consumption. The poverty trap is a tax and social security system which makes it difficult for the poor to escape from poverty.

• capital account
• capital accumulation
• capital adequacy
• capital allowances
• capital appreciation
• capital asset pricing model
• capital consumption
• capital deepening
• capital expenditure
• capital flight
• capital formation
• capital gain
• capital gains tax
• capital gearing
• capital goods
• capital inflow
• capital-intensity
• capitalism
• capital issues
• capitalist
• capitalization, market
• capital-labour ratio
• capital levy
• capital loss
• capital market