Poverty in modern society. Poverty problem in the Russian Federation

FEDERAL EDUCATION AGENCY

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

COURSE WORK

in the discipline "Social Processes"

on the topic "Social causes of poverty"

Work is done

supervisor

Moscow - 2009

INTRODUCTION 3

1. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF POVERTY ... 6

1.1. The concept of poverty. The history of the study of poverty. 6

1.2. Basic concepts of study and measurement of poverty. eleven

2. POVERTY IN MODERN SOCIETY. eighteen

2.1. The causes of poverty. eighteen

2.2. Poverty as seen by Russians. 22

2.3. Possible Poverty Reduction Strategies. 28

CONCLUSION. 33

LIST OF USED SOURCES ... 36

INTRODUCTION

Poverty is a feature of any modern society. It is considered the most social problem, focusing in itself the entire gamut of sociological concepts and categories.

Over the past years, economic reforms have taken place in our country, which have seriously changed social structure society.

In Russia in the 90s, there is a phenomenon of growing social polarization, i.e. a growing chasm between a handful of the rich and an overwhelming mass of people in a state of poverty and misery. Moreover, it is in Russia that the most striking manifestation of inequality is observed in comparison with other countries. (The share of income of 20% of the richest citizens of Russia is 110 times higher than the income of 20% of the poorest citizens).

Not all people were able to realize themselves in life, many were simply not ready for these changes. Most of the citizens were deprived of the social protection of the state and had to adapt to life in the face of market instability: a decline in production, inflation, economic and political instability, mass unemployment, and delays in the payment of wages significantly complicated the life of Russians. In such conditions, the number of poor people was constantly growing.

Poverty is very widespread in Russian society, and, taking into account those who are constantly balancing "on the brink" and at the slightest worsening of the situation in the economy, they may be "below the line", it covers about 35% of the population.

In foreign sociology, poverty and social inequality is one of the broad developed and continuing to be developed areas of scientific research. Since the 90s, Russian sociologists have also actively joined in. In a short period of time in Russia

a decent empirical material has been accumulated and serious attempts have been made to theoretically comprehend the problem. Nevertheless, a holistic systematic view of the problem of poverty in Russian sociology has not yet taken shape. The reason is the long-term lag in its study and an unexpected impulse that obviously caught the researchers by surprise.

Relevance of the topic lies in the fact that under the conditions of changes in Russian society, a significant part of the population found itself below the poverty line. Problematic situation is that the process of social polarization is intensifying, the stratification of our society into rich and poor. This process is dynamic, with the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer. The excessive polarization of society, the progressive narrowing of social opportunities for its most deprived groups, the inequality of life chances depending on the level of material well-being will soon lead to a sharp restriction of the possibilities of people from the poor strata of the population.

Object term paper is a category of the population living below the poverty line.

Subject course work is the social status of the population living below the poverty line.

The purpose coursework is to clarify the causes of the spread of poverty.

Main goals term paper:

1. Consider the history of poverty studies

2. Describe concepts for the study and measurement of poverty

3. Identify the causes of poverty

4. Consider poverty as perceived by Russians

5. Describe possible poverty reduction strategies

The first chapter examines the concept of poverty, the history of the study, the basic concepts of measuring poverty. The second chapter presents the social causes of poverty, Russians' perceptions of the causes of poverty, and possible strategies for poverty reduction.

1 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF POVERTY

1.1. The concept of poverty. History of Poverty Studies

Poverty- characteristic economic situation an individual or a social group in which they cannot satisfy a certain range of minimum needs necessary for life, preservation of working capacity, procreation.

Poverty- inability to maintain a certain acceptable standard of living.

Poverty- This is a condition in which the basic needs of a person exceed his ability to satisfy them.

Comparative analysis poverty in rich and poor countries contributed to the emergence of the concept of double poverty, according to which there is absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is understood as a state in which an individual, on his own income, is not able to satisfy even the basic needs for food, housing, clothing, heat, or is able to satisfy only the minimum needs that ensure biological survival. The numerical criterion is the poverty threshold (cost of living). Relative poverty is understood as the inability to maintain a certain standard of living accepted in a given society. Relative poverty measures how poor you are compared to other people.4

Poverty implies justifying a minimum food basket and a minimum standard of living, below which no one should fall. Poverty is not only a minimum income, but a special way and lifestyle, passed from generation to generation norms of behavior. Therefore, sociologists speak of poverty as a special subculture. If inequality characterizes society as a whole, then poverty affects only part of the population.

Above, we have considered the absolute and relative varieties of poverty, but also distinguish between poverty "weak" and "strong". The poverty of the “weak” is the so-called social poverty (disabled, disabled, sick), which requires attention in any society. The poverty of the “strong” arises in extreme conditions when workers are deprived of the opportunity to ensure the generally accepted level of well-being at the expense of their labor. From this point of view, the poverty of the "strong" can be defined as production, labor, economic. Alleviating social poverty requires predominantly direct assistance in the form of cash payments or the provision of real goods and services. Economic poverty is eliminated mainly indirectly through the creation of conditions that stimulate and develop labor activity. Such a difference in the types of poverty is of great importance for justifying the directions of activity of administrations in relation to the disabled part of the poor population and its economically active part, among them social assistance, social support and social protection.

It is poverty that determines the limited access of a significant part of the population of our country to development resources: high-paying jobs, high-quality education and health services, the possibility of successful socialization of children and youth. The low level of income of a significant part of families, combined with an excessive polarization of income, cause a social rift in society, cause social tension, hinder the successful development of the country, and determine the crisis processes in the family and society.

In the period from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century, two main approaches to the study of poverty dominated abroad: the social Darwinian and the egalitarian. 18th century thinkers believed poverty was an inevitable consequence industrial development(A. Smith, T. Malthus, D. Ricardo). A. Smith believed that wage will increase with the growth of national wealth; remuneration for work will be determined by fairness and economic expediency, as all of this increases industriousness, which contributes to population growth. Population growth is the basis for the prosperity of any country, therefore, a guarantee of poverty reduction.

T. Malthus linked poverty with the natural conditions of an individual's existence. He believed that the cause of poverty is not in the peculiarities of the social structure, but in the excessive reproduction of the population. It belongs to him the famous law of progression, which says: "if the growth of population occurs in geometric progression, then the growth of the means of subsistence necessary for their existence grows only in arithmetic." This difference is the reason for the emergence of a surplus population. This difference is the reason for the emergence of a surplus population. And where there is a surplus of population and a shortage of food, poverty inevitably arises. Malthus believed that poverty depends on excessive population growth, and that the poor themselves are to blame, and the state aid system encourages the multiplication of the poor. Poverty itself regulates its numbers through widespread hunger and epidemics. They mow down the population and eliminate its surplus.

G. Spencer in the middle of the XIX century considered poverty to be a completely natural phenomenon of society. In his book Social Statics (1850), he noted that poverty and inequality arise and grow as social production grows. But production cannot be stopped; therefore, it is impossible to eliminate poverty. He viewed poverty not as a social phenomenon, but as a personal problem, i.e. individual choice, individual destiny. People are imperfect, some have skillfully adapted to the vicissitudes of social life, while others have failed to do so.

He also opposed state interference in the natural development of society. Helping the poor meant for him a restriction of freedom of activity. This means that the state has shifted the burden of caring for the poor (through higher taxes) onto other segments of the population. “Poverty at the expense of others” is not the most favorable condition for society and not the way to get rid of it. The more people live on government benefits, the fewer people live on independent work, therefore, the fewer people produce the goods necessary for the majority.

G. Spencer believed that it is impossible to define clear criteria for poverty. Extreme need (poverty) is only a visible indicator of poverty, which is hidden in the lifestyle standards of a given society. In general, he attributed a positive role to poverty, considering it the driving force behind personal development.

The French scientist J. Proudhon considered poverty to be a social good. Only with an increase in labor productivity open up real prospects for overcoming poverty. It was he who identified two types of poverty - absolute and relative.

American sociologist F.G. Giddings recognized poverty as an unavoidable evil, and at a certain stage - as a social good, an inevitable companion of social progress.

The social Darwinian concept of poverty is based on the principles of the struggle for existence, natural selection, the inevitability of social inequality and the uselessness of fundamental reforms that harm both society and the poor themselves. They viewed all social phenomena, including poverty, through the prism of Charles Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. The cult of entrepreneurship and wealth was preached, the poor were considered personally responsible for the material difficulties that brought them to the bottom of society (since they are there, as the supporters of social Darwinism would say, it means that they are quite satisfied with life in poverty).

Representatives of another trend, egalitarian, preached universal equalization as a principle of organizing public life (E. Reclus, K. Marx and F. Engels). For them, poverty is only a social evil, a consequence of a certain type of either distributional relations (E. Reclus), or relations of production and surplus value (K. Marx and F. Engels).

Sociologist E. Reclus, in his work "Wealth and Poverty", distinguished from poverty its extreme state - poverty. Those who could meet only basic needs, he considered poor. To do this, he calculated the minimum funds required to maintain physical existence. Those who fit into it were considered poor, those who did not fit were classified as beggars. A condition for overcoming poverty is an equal distribution of agricultural and industrial products among all strata of society.

For the criterion of poverty, very abstract units are taken here: ownership of the means of production and the measure of the exploitation of workers. The latter did not characterize poverty itself, but only the essence of the contradictions between capitalists and workers. The poverty line was determined not by the average standard of living of the majority of the population, but by the standard of consumption of a prosperous minority.

1.2 Basic concepts of poverty study and measurement

Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and measurement of poverty are based on three main concepts: absolute , based on the formal compliance of incomes with the established minimum means of subsistence; subjective , based on assessments of their own position by people themselves; relative , assuming that, given the differences in consumption standards in different communities, the establishment of a single minimum “poverty line” is at least problematic and depends on the average living standard of a particular country. In the era of the crisis, the so-called Welfare State, which affected the developed countries of the world (these processes are also recorded in Russia), many scientists and politicians come to the conclusion that poverty in modern industrial society should no longer be considered as an absolute, but as a relative state, and, therefore, will inevitably exist as long as there is social inequality.

Official ideas about poverty in Russia are based on its absolute understanding, while the indicator is the comparison of average per capita income with the subsistence minimum (SM), i.e. with the cost of the minimum basket, formed taking into account the established consumption standards. The first to take up quantitative calculations of the level of poverty were the English scientists Charles Booth and Sibom Rowntree, who introduced the concept of "the threshold (or line) of poverty" in the 1890s. The poverty line is the minimum income required to purchase only essential food, clothing and housing. With the development of society, the set of objects and services necessary for life expanded, but the essence of the method remained the same - the classification of an individual or a family as poor depends on what they possessed. Using this method, it is possible to measure absolute poverty.

It is on the basis of this approach that Goskomstat calculates and provides data on the share of poor Russian households (their per capita income- below the subsistence level).

However, the method used in the Goskomstat estimates has been subject to well-founded criticism over the past decade by authoritative experts in the field of poverty studies. For example, Z. Golenkova, M. Mozhina, N. Rimashevskaya at different times substantiated the need to improve the “morally and physically outdated” official poverty standard. Probably, in response to criticism by the Government of the Russian Federation in 2000, some steps were taken to revise the methodology for calculating the subsistence minimum, which is the basis for determining the statistical boundaries of poverty in Russia.

However, the “living wage” criterion itself can give different results depending on what is meant by it. In addition to the officially used methodology, there are different approaches to calculating the subsistence level and different ideas about it. VTsIOM, for example, regularly monitors the opinion of the population about the required PM and comes to the conclusion that for Russians this concept rather means a social minimum, which guarantees "a modest but more or less decent existence."

The weak point of any quantitative assessment of poverty is the neglect of a wide range of other available resources that affect the maintenance of the material well-being of people. Therefore, Russian sociologists in a number of cases resort to to the use of subjective approaches in assessing the scale of poverty and identifying the poor groups of the population... However, reliance on subjective assessments of satisfaction with personal material well-being also does not solve the problem of data reliability, since there is no direct relationship between subjective self-assessments and the actual level of people's incomes; dependence has rather the character of a trend, as indicated, in particular, by T. Zaslavskaya and a number of other researchers.

Subjective assessments are often based on the principle of social comparison with reference groups that practice different (higher) living standards and consumption patterns. The higher the level of financial situation in the past, the more acutely it is felt subjective impoverishment . The opposite tendency is also known - the needs of the poor are often artificially limited by themselves, thus, they adapt to real life conditions and experience more or less satisfaction with what they have. According to experts, VTsIOM, the subjective approach is more likely an indicator of the political stability of reforms than a criterion of the actual financial situation.

However, absolute and subjective concepts of poverty do not guarantee complete data reliability. Therefore, in recent decades in Russia there has been an interest in new sociological approaches to understanding and studying poverty. It is on the concept of relative poverty, the founder of which is P. Thousend. In the framework of his approach, the situation of the poor is correlated with the average standard of living achieved in a particular country. The starting point of the concept is the understanding that the assessment of such a complex social phenomenon as poverty is impossible without obtaining the fullest possible understanding of its specifics in the context of a particular community. In recent years, Russian researchers have increasingly viewed the problem of poverty from the standpoint of a relative approach. The method of identifying the poor according to the principle of the median corresponds quite fully to its meaning. Under this method, the poor are defined as those whose income is a certain proportion of the “median” income in a given country at a given time. Moreover, the poverty line is always at the same distance from the median, which statistically characterizes the average living standard achieved in society.

It has recently been that Russian sociologists have begun to come to the conclusion that poverty research requires an analysis of the deprivation, deprivation, and limitations in social life experienced by a certain proportion of the population. This is the essence of the deprivation approach in assessing poverty - an integral part of the concept of its relative understanding and study.

Deprivation approach(or the assessment of poverty through the experienced deprivation) requires taking into account a number of material, but also social indicators in order to determine the qualitative "threshold" below which the lack of mental approaches leads the individual to the brink of falling out of the usual social ties and the generally accepted way of life of the majority of the population of a certain region or country , "Threshold", which, in fact, means social exclusion, i.e. the actual exclusion of a certain proportion of the population from normal living conditions.

According to this approach, the poor are considered citizens whose consumption does not correspond to the standard accepted in society, who do not have access to a certain set of goods and services.

The application of the deprivation approach in research practice involves the solution three main methodological objectives :

1. How to identify indicators of deprivation.

2. To what extent do they indicate a decline in the generally accepted standard of living.

3. Are there high-quality “thresholds” of deprivation that allow assessing the living standards of this or that individual or family?

In assessments of poverty based on the deprivation approach, it is necessary to distinguish between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of deprivation. The qualitative content of various levels of deprivation according to the estimates of the surveyed poor households is as follows:

IV degree of deprivation- the level of poverty, when there are not enough resources for normal food (the family does not finish eating, they practically do not eat fresh meat, fish), the family saves on hygiene items, does not renew clothes for children as they grow, refuses to buy fruits, juices, does not have such durables as a TV and a refrigerator.

III degree of deprivation- the stage of acute need (poverty) - deprivation is concentrated on the quality of food, lack of clothes and shoes (adult family members are forced to refuse to renew them), it is difficult for a family to maintain housing in order, to have simple everyday furniture, to organize, if necessary, the necessary ritual ceremony (funeral , commemoration), purchase vital medicines and medical devices, limit the possibility of inviting guests and going out.

II degree of deprivation- the level of constraint (low income) - when there is not enough money for the family's favorite delicacies, gifts for loved ones, newspapers, magazines, books; the quality of leisure for adults and children decreases; the family cannot afford to buy a washing machine, visit relatives living far away; refuses paid services, primarily necessary medical services.

I degree- a stage that characterizes living standards close to average and does not mean the existence of a deviation from the generally accepted way of life in the Russian community. Families at this stage need to improve their living conditions, save on the purchase of modern expensive durables, paid educational, recreational services, family rest and entertainment.

Poverty Culture Concept connects poverty with a special way of life, developed by O. Lewis - professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, who studied in the 1950s - 1960s. rural life in Latin America and had a significant impact on sociological studies of poverty at the time, and on poverty policy. According to his concept, the isolation of the poor in society occurs through a special culture passed down from generation to generation, which, on the one hand, is the result of individual reactions to a marginal position in a stratified, individualistic capitalist society, and on the other, relatively stable, independent of external conditions,

a completely rational system of values, norms and rules for solving life problems. Its reproduction is explained not so much by the preservation of material and social conditions, in which it develops, how much by the process of socialization. Hence comes the special attention to the family of the lower class and numerous discussions about the change in the institution of the family (matriarchal family, multi-problem family, etc.) and about the role of family socialization in the transmission of culture.

Thus, O. Lewis came to the conclusion that the lower strata of the population, in conditions of constant need, develop their own attitudes, values ​​and sustainable models of behavior that are socially inherited and contribute to the persistence of poverty.

2.POVERTY IN MODERN SOCIETY

2.1. Causes of poverty

The main causes of poverty can be grouped into 3 groups:

1.political

2.economic

3.cultural

Speaking about poverty in modern Russia, it is necessary to remember about the collapse of the communist system and in our country, on the implementation of reforms affecting all spheres of society. These transformations have had two important consequences. First, they entailed an intensive change in the structure of society in our country. Second, poverty also existed in Russia throughout Soviet history, although for ideological reasons the term “poor” was used instead of the term “poverty”. Now it has become a special object of the state's social policy.

After the economic transformations of the early nineties most Russians were left on their own: enterprises entered the stage of crisis and transformation of forms of ownership and reduced social spending. During the period of socialist development, Russian society in our country moved into a state where wage labor in state-owned enterprises and in state institutions became the main source of livelihood for small families living in small apartments in urbanized centers, and in most cases it still retains this role. ... Older parents, despite their retirement age, participate in such activities whenever possible. Many families have the opportunity to be self-sufficient in essential products thanks to work on their subsidiary plots (garden plots, vegetable gardens, etc.). The bulk of the population still enjoys the benefits that have survived from the previous socialist era of achievements - relatively cheap communal housing. The situation is especially worse when a person becomes unemployed. However, there is alternative employment. Labor without official registration prevails here, in which a person does not pay taxes. It is often resorted to in those households whose members have not lost their legal jobs.

The shift to spending almost exclusively on food. The typical coping strategy is to satisfy only the primary needs.

The incidence of poverty increased sharply during the transition to the market... The two main causes of poverty are a sharp economic downturn and strong income differentiation during the transition period. The income gap has been driven in part by the shift from government wages to business income, which tends to be more unevenly distributed. Wage income declined as a result of job cuts and declining public sector wages. Also, the refusal of the state from a number of social guarantees of the Soviet period: ensuring full employment of the able-bodied, universal access to education and health care, etc. On the other hand, many changes in social policy are due to the development of a market economy: structural unemployment, the development of paid services in education, health care, social services , housing and communal services and other social sectors.

In a modern industrial society (in this respect, Russia is quite modern), most people have a livelihood thanks to hired labor. This means that wages are the main source of income for most Russians and account for two-thirds of the income structure of the entire population; it is quite natural that the situation in the labor market had a dominant effect on the incidence of poverty during the period of economic transformations.

Unemployment has become one of the main causes of poverty. The impact of unemployment on poverty is greatest when heads of households are deprived of their jobs, especially if this is the only source of family income, worsening their financial situation. It leads to the inactivity of a certain part able-bodied population as a result - to the loss of qualifications, the decline of moral foundations, the breakdown of the family, to social and political unrest.

Traditionally vulnerable groups of the population in the labor market are: single parents (mainly single mothers) raising minor children; young people unable to find work after graduation; unemployed (especially those who have been unemployed for a long time); older workers; disabled people; migrants. Additional factors associated with the risk of poverty are a low level of education, insufficient work experience, and family status. Poverty feminization is taking place: groups with a high risk of poverty include single-parent families, as a rule, headed by women, and elderly pensioners living alone, among whom women also predominate.

If we consider the age and sex composition of the population with money incomes below the subsistence level, then the highest proportion of poverty (as a percentage of the total number of the corresponding age and sex group) is noted among children aged 7 to 15 years (41.9%) and women aged from 31 to 54 years old (36.4%).

A distinctive feature of the current stage of development of our country is that against the background of social poverty (large and single-parent families with children, families with dependents, single pensioners, disabled people), economic poverty is increasing, when able-bodied citizens cannot provide themselves with a socially acceptable level of well-being due to low wages or delays in their payment.

At the same time, the factors that generate economic poverty are such that getting a job by the working population in itself cannot serve as a source of well-being for the following reasons:

· The absence of a labor market in depressed regions (especially in small towns and villages), where the economy is determined by a narrow circle of enterprises (and often by one - a city-forming one) of stagnating industries;

· The normatively established remuneration framework is such that it does not allow employees to officially receive decent remuneration, depending on the efficiency and quality of work.

In many ways, the causes of poverty lie in the mentality of the Russian population.... We are talking about the ideology of social dependency, formed during the period of socialism. Not all Russians are capable of being active, entrepreneurial and initiative; they are confident in their own strengths and can adapt to market relations. Sociological studies show that a significant part of the respondents takes a passive position, believing that the state is obliged to provide work for all able-bodied citizens and maintain a certain level of well-being of the population. According to a 2000 opinion poll conducted in a typical provincial village, 95% of its residents define a prosperous life as the standards of the Soviet era: guaranteed employment, stable and regularly paid wages and a predictable future.

2.2. Poverty as seen by Russians

But what do most Russians understand by poverty? For 90% of the respondents, poverty is a standard of living slightly lower than their own. In other words, the definition of the “poverty line” depends on own income of people... Most Russians believe that the “poverty line” is just over 1,500 rubles per family member per month. Judging by the self-assessments of Russians, almost 30% of the population are now at the level of these average per capita incomes.3

The characteristic signs of the lifestyle of the poor, according to the majority of Russians, are poor nutrition, inaccessibility to purchase new clothes and shoes, poor living conditions, inaccessibility of high-quality medical care, lack of opportunities to get a good education, to satisfy priority needs without debt, to spend their free time as want, and children - to achieve the same as most of their peers.

Thus, poverty is associated in the self-awareness of the Russian population with very specific types of deprivation. However, those who experience these deprivations are not always the same people whose per capita income is below the "poverty line" recognized in the mass consciousness. Differences in the cost of living by regions, the specifics of expenses related to the composition of families and the health of their members, the presence or absence of significant help from relatives, friends and acquaintances lead to the fact that families with an average per capita income of more than 1,500 are often in the most difficult situation. rubles per month. And, on the contrary, some of those who have less income do not belong to the poor strata of the population, judging by their level and way of life.

This prompted the organizers of the study to single out from the entire sample of those surveyed those whose lifestyle and standard of living are characterized by features attributed by the majority to the signs of poverty: poor nutrition, lack of clothing and footwear, poor living conditions (lack of their own apartment / house or less than 10 sq. total area per person), lack of real estate (summer cottages, land, garage), inability to use paid services (primarily medical and educational).

As it turned out, the share of Russians living in such conditions is 23.4% today, i.e. almost a quarter of the country's population. These are, by sociological standards, the real poor in modern Russia. Moreover, only half of their representatives have a level of income that does not really exceed 1,500 rubles, while the rest have incomes ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 rubles. In some cases (6.5%), even respondents with average per capita monthly incomes above 3000 rubles (this mainly refers to Moscow, where the cost of living is especially high) fell into the group of real poverty.

As you know, any phenomenon is cognized by comparison. Therefore, some of the research data were compared with the data of the pan-European study “Eurobarometer - 40: Poverty and Social Exclusion”. As this comparison has shown, between the perception of poverty in Russia and in Western European countries- long distance. On average in Europe, only 38.0% of the population noted that in the area (region, city) where they live, there are people who find themselves in a situation of poverty. At the same time, 34.3% of all surveyed respondents in Europe believed that in their area there are no people at all who are in a state of poverty or risk being poor in the near future. The highest indicator was in Denmark and Luxembourg (55.3 and 53.8%, respectively), and the lowest in Portugal and Greece (24.0 and 19.4%).

In Russia, this question was asked in a slightly different formulation ("Are there people in the region, city where you live, who have found themselves below the poverty line in recent years?" a lot "- 77.0%," there are such people, but not too many "- 18.5%," very few are in a similar situation "- 4.5%. The resulting picture of Russians' perceptions of the prevalence of poverty is very different from European indicators. In addition, the majority of Russians have a personal experience of constant contact with poverty, in contrast to Europeans, for whom it is rather an exception to the rule.

Differences in the perception of the poor are based on the different views of Russians and Europeans on the reasons for people living below the poverty line. Among the reasons for the current difficult situation of people who find themselves below the poverty line, in the mass consciousness of Russians, non-payment of wages at the enterprise and delayed pensions, long-term unemployment, insufficient state social benefits, illness, disability dominate, and only in fifth place are alcoholism and drug addiction. In Europe, the causes of poverty are associated, first of all, with the person himself, his disorder and personal shortcomings, first of all - alcoholism and drug addiction (Table 2.1).

Judging by the data obtained, Russians' ideas about the causes of poverty are sufficiently substantiated. Indeed, it is precisely the macroeconomic reasons, above all the state regional market labor, significantly affect the share of the poor in the total population. At the same time, in the conditions of depressed labor markets, the poor also include quite ordinary complete families with working parents and minor children. Personal characteristics, especially alcoholism, affect the increased risk of sliding into deep poverty, mainly for families of completely degraded alcoholics. For the rest, the macro factors are much more important - low salary, delayed salaries and pensions, the impossibility of earning money and low economic returns from them in poor regions, etc.

Table 2.1

Causes of poverty as perceived by Europeans and Russians, in%

(up to five answers allowed)

In this regard, it should be immediately emphasized that in order to identify the real causes of poverty, as possible, in the study "The Rich and the Poor of Modern Russia", the question about the causes of poverty was asked only in relation to the causes of poverty of people whom the respondents knew personally well, and allowed several answers (to the case if there were several such acquaintances). Thus, we can assume that when answering this question, all respondents, including the poor themselves, gave an expert assessment of the causes of poverty in modern Russia (Table 2.2).

Table 2.2

Russians' assessment of the reasons for the poverty of their personal acquaintances, in%

(multiple answers allowed)

As can be seen from Table 2.2, Russians ascribed a decisive role in the causes of poverty to their acquaintances. macrofactors(unemployment, delayed wages, lack of social benefits, etc.). Moreover, the assessments of all Russians and those of them who belonged to the poor strata of the population were quite close in all positions of this group of reasons, with the exception of one factor - “insufficient state social security benefits”, which the poor noted much more often, relying more on state aid than on themselves, which, however, is not surprising, given the data on their resource endowments, which were cited above.

The second most important group of causes of poverty was personal problems- family misfortunes (death of a breadwinner, fire, etc.), illness, the presence of a large number of dependents, etc. Here, too, the estimates were fairly close, with the exception of the health situation, which the poor cited much more often as the cause of poverty.

Such a distribution of answers indicates not only the general weakness of the state social policy, but also its narrowest point - insufficient accounting for the additional costs that a serious illness entails for people, which does not even entail disability. It is no coincidence that among the representatives of the four lower strata, over a third of the respondents rated their own health as "bad", in the middle strata - 10-13%, and starting from the 9th stratum - no more than 6%. On the other hand, over 80% of those who rated their health as "poor" fell into the four lower strata.

Finally, socio-psychological reasons(laziness, inertia), which are spoken of much less frequently among specialists than the first two groups of causes of poverty, were noted by almost 42% of the Russians surveyed and only 28.3% of the poor themselves, and among the “beggars” - only 24.2%. If we add to these reasons alcoholism and drug addiction, which are the cause of poverty among more than a third of the acquaintances of the Russians surveyed, it turns out that the majority of the respondents had people among their acquaintances who found themselves below the poverty line, in fact, through their own fault or through the fault of their loved ones.

2.3. Possible Poverty Reduction Strategies

The fact that poverty has spread to more than a quarter of Russia's population, and with the lowest standards used to measure it, testifies to the severity of the problem of poverty in our country.

The fight against poverty is an integral part of the overall social and economic policy any state. And here there are no ready-made recipes and simple solutions, the possibility of copying the experience of other countries that provide high living standards for the absolute majority of their population.

With regard to Russia, the fight against poverty means the formation in practice of a social state proclaimed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the provision of a guaranteed level of income for the working-age population on the basis of their own labor, the availability of high-quality services of education, health care, culture, housing and communal services for all segments of the population. ...

With regard to special measures to combat poverty, it appears that that the most important priorities in the fight against poverty in modern Russia are:

1. Creation of conditions allowing the working population to earn enough so that the family does not live in a state of poverty.

2. Creation of an effective system of support for socially vulnerable groups of the population (the elderly, the disabled, families with high dependency

stress, families in extreme situations, refugees, etc.).

3. Opposing discrimination against the poor in accessing free or subsidized social services.

First of all, you should ensure preventing further growth in the incidence of poverty. For these purposes, it is necessary to conduct an examination social consequences all large-scale reforms, not to take measures that will lead to an increase in poverty for a significant part of the population.

At the same time, it is necessary to create conditions for an independent way out of poverty for the able-bodied strata of the population on a labor basis.

In the institutional sphere large reserves of poverty alleviation are concentrated in development partnerships between employers, trade unions and the state. The role of trade unions and the state in ensuring the labor rights of workers, especially disabled people, women and parents with young children, workers from single-parent families, and young people should be enhanced.

In the area of ​​wages, the main factor in reducing poverty should be an increase in the minimum wage and a reduction in the number of low-paid workers. The implementation of this task is currently in the center of attention of the Government of Russia and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and an acceptable solution has not yet been found.

Another area of ​​assistance in reducing poverty is increasing employment of the population. This task can be solved by creating cheaper jobs in small business and labor-intensive sectors of the light and food industries, focused on domestic market and the mass consumer. It is necessary to improve lending to domestic producers, improve the system of unemployment benefits, develop public works, create temporary jobs for the unemployed, and other measures.

While ensuring conditions for the working-age population to get out of poverty on a labor basis, at the same time, it is necessary to improve the system of targeted social assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population (disabled people, pensioners, single parents, refugees, etc.) and to increase the amount of social benefits for the poor.

It is necessary to gradually abandon the categorical method of social protection of the population, revise and reduce the number of beneficiaries, focusing on the priority support of the poorest population, not having an objective opportunity to receive labor income. These categories include Heroes of the Russian Federation, Heroes of the Soviet Union, full holders of the Order of Glory, invalids and participants in the Great Patriotic War, participants in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, persons injured and concussed while protecting the constitutional order and law and order, former underage prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring that the poor have access to the minimum necessary educational and health services.

An important factor in the poverty of all traditionally poor categories of the population is the low level of state social transfers (pensions, including disability pensions, scholarships, unemployment benefits, child benefits for low-income families). Therefore, the primary and strategic task in this case is to increase the size of pensions and social benefits. The strategy is to bring them to a living wage, tactics involves a phased implementation of this process.

In a relationship disabled the strategic task is to move from material support for disabled people to the prevention of disability, providing disabled people with an environment of life and medical, social and labor rehabilitation. The implementation of such a policy is associated with the creation of jobs for disabled people, training disabled people in specialties that would allow them to find their place in the labor market with appropriate support from the state and society.

In addition to the growth of state social transfers, an increase in the standard of living of single-parent families is associated with the creation of conditions for the realization of the professional potential of women and the normalization of the process of payment of private transfers - alimony. Measures against discrimination against women in the labor market are most likely to be considered promising. They imply investment in industries with predominantly female employment, the development of a service sector and the household industry that is adequate to today's conditions. The development of the service sector, on the one hand, creates jobs for women, on the other hand, it allows working mothers to combine industrial and domestic employment.

Among the following measures, and aimed at reducing the poverty of pensioners living alone, there is a set of measures aimed

to provide this population group with adequate medical and social services. It is the discrimination of older people with access to free medical services that is most often manifested. Two ways of social policy are possible here. The first presupposes the recognition of the priority of paid medical services and social services. In this case, the living wage of a pensioner should take into account the real needs for medical and social services, and the pension should be 2-3 times higher so that pensioners, even with a strict economy regime, can pay for these services in accordance with the real consumption standards of this category of citizens. The second way presupposes a system of institutional and financial measures aimed at real provision of free medical care for older people. This route appears to be less expensive and possibly more efficient. But the standard of needs of the population in medical and social services must be brought into line with the real needs of older people, recognized as a social norm for the current level of development of society.

The proposed set of measures, on the one hand, presupposes the further implementation of reforms aimed at ensuring sustainable economic growth, on the other hand, it is aimed at shifting the priorities of social policy towards those who are not able to independently provide an acceptable standard of living. The central link of priorities is the processes in the labor market: both in the sphere of employment and wages. Expanding income-earning opportunities for the working-age poor is key. The starting point in the implementation of this priority is the legalization of informal behavior patterns of both employees and employers. Positive changes in employment will in any case lead to an increase in official fund wages. This, in turn, will not only reduce the potential burden on social support programs for vulnerable groups of the population, but also increase social contributions, which will help to strengthen the financial base of social transfers.

CONCLUSION

The poverty of a significant part of the population for a number of years continues to be one of the main social threats to the successful development of society. The economic reforms taking place in our country in recent years have seriously changed the social structure of society. The process of social polarization, stratification of society into rich and poor is intensifying. The overwhelming majority of citizens were deprived of the social protection of the state, and were faced with the need to adapt to life in conditions of market instability. In these conditions, the emergence of a large number of poor people turned out to be inevitable.

Failure to meet a certain range of minimum needs necessary for life, preservation of ability to work, procreation is considered poverty.

Comparative analysis of poverty in rich and poor countries contributed to the emergence of the concept of double poverty, according to which there is absolute and relative poverty. Poverty is also distinguished between the “weak” and the “strong”.

Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and measurement of poverty are based on three basic concepts: absolute, based on the formal compliance of incomes with the established minimum means of subsistence; subjective, based on assessments of their own position by people themselves; relative, suggesting that, given the difference in consumption standards in different communities, the establishment of a single minimum “poverty line” is at least problematic and depends on the average living standard of a particular country.

It has recently been that Russian sociologists have begun to come to the conclusion that poverty research requires an analysis of the deprivation, deprivation, and limitations in social life experienced by a certain proportion of the population.

Poverty is not only a minimum income, but a special way and lifestyle, passed from generation to generation norms of behavior. Therefore, sociologists speak of poverty as a special subculture.

It is the “Culture of Poverty” concept that links poverty with a particular way of life. According to the concept, the isolation of the poor in society occurs through a special culture, passed down from generation to generation, which, on the one hand, is the result of individual reactions to a marginal position in society, and on the other, relatively stable, independent of external conditions.

a rational system of values, norms and rules for solving life problems.

In the course work, three main causes of poverty are identified: political (the collapse of the USSR and the communist system); economic (transition to a market economy, a sharp economic downturn and strong income differentiation, low wages, unemployment); cultural (the ideology of social dependency, formed during the period of socialism).

Poverty is associated in the self-awareness of the Russian population with very specific types of deprivation. The Russians ascribed a decisive role in the causes of poverty to macro-factors (unemployment, delayed wages, insufficient social benefits, etc.). The second most important group of causes of poverty was personal problems - family misfortunes, illness, the presence of a large number of dependents, etc. And the third group - social and psychological reasons (laziness, inertia).

The fight against poverty is an integral part of the general social and economic policy of any state. The most important priorities in the fight against poverty in modern Russia are:

Creation of conditions that allow the working population to earn enough so that the family does not live in a state of poverty

Formation of a system of effective support for vulnerable groups of the population (the elderly, disabled people, families with a high dependency burden, families in extreme situations) and guarantees of non-discriminatory access to free or subsidized resources

Creation of conditions for an independent exit from poverty for the able-bodied population on a labor basis

Increasing the role of trade unions and the state in ensuring the labor rights of workers

An increase in the minimum wage, a decrease in the number of low-paid workers

Increase in employment of the population

Improving the system of targeted social assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population and increasing the amount of social benefits for the poor

LIST OF USED SOURCES

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11. Nikolaev I.A., Marushkina I.V. Poverty in Russia: Economic Analysis // www.fbk.ru/upload/contents/561/poverty_report.pdf, 2005.

12. Ovcharova L.N. Income and social services: inequality, vulnerability, poverty // www.socpol.ru/publications/inc&ben/intro.pdf, 2005

13. Online Encyclopedia "Krugosvet" // www.krugosvet.ru/enc/gumanitarnye_nauki/ekonomika_i_pravo/BEDNOST.html#1012515-L-106, 2001-2009.

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Www.prpc.ru/discuss/pov_doc2.shtml

Introduction

1.1 Concept and characteristics of poverty

1.2 Causes of poverty

2.2 Income of the population in the Russian Federation

Conclusion

Bibliographic list

Introduction

One of the most acute problems of today is the decline in the standard of living of the population, widespread poverty.

In Russia, the rapid growth in the level of poverty is due to a decline in employment and the emergence of unemployment, a sharp decline in labor income at the initial stage of socio-economic reforms in the late twentieth century in the context of an ineffective system of social protection of the population. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in recent years the level of poverty has remained high, and for some segments of the population the problem of life support has even worsened. Poverty is especially characteristic of those employed in the public sector of the economy, in rural areas and in small towns, for large families and families with an incomplete composition. High absolute poverty in our country is combined with high economic inequality in the distribution cash income and property between rich and poor.

Over the years of market reforms, the real incomes of the population have more than halved, and almost all indicators of the level and quality of life of the Russian population have worsened. More than a third of Russians now have incomes below the subsistence level, and another 50% of the population can barely make ends meet. Thus, the problem of poverty in Russia is extremely urgent today.

The purpose of my course work is to consider the problem of poverty in the Russian Federation in its development; track the dynamics of the development of this process.

The objectives of this work are:

) a comprehensive description of poverty as a socio-economic phenomenon;

) study of the causes of poverty;

) analysis of the current state of poverty in the Russian Federation;

) indicate the main directions of the socio-economic policy of the Russian Federation to combat poverty;

) on the basis of all analyzes, formulate a general conclusion.

poverty population living wage

Chapter 1. Essence of poverty

.1 Concept and characteristics of poverty

Poverty is not a threshold, it can be crossed ...

(Johnsen Koicolainer)

Poverty is a complex concept, historically determined and multifactorial. Today, there is no unambiguous, strict and generally accepted definition of poverty. This concept is constantly being concretized and modified.

· Poverty - extreme insufficiency of a person, family, region, state<#"justify">The regulatory and legal framework for determining poverty in Russia is the Federal Laws "On the Subsistence Minimum in the Russian Federation , "On state social assistance", "On the procedure for recording income and calculating the average per capita income of a family and the income of a single citizen for recognizing them as poor and providing them with state social assistance."

It is worth emphasizing that poverty is not homogeneous. There are her most serious conditions (extreme poverty with incomes 2 times lower than the subsistence level) when it comes to direct malnutrition: among all the poor at the beginning of 2009 there were about 9 million. human. On the opposite side, there are groups that maintain a balance at the upper poverty line, from which the budget for the minimum material security begins. Today in Russia, the so-called fluid poverty (temporary impossibility of providing on their own) in comparison with stagnant, which is characterized by the constant impossibility of providing without external social support. As a social phenomenon, poverty is inherent in all economic system... But its severity in society differs significantly in individual countries, depending on the pace of their economic development, accumulated wealth, the size of the production potential, the level of well-being of the people, and the characteristics of the distribution policy. In the most developed countries of the world, focused on the social well-being of their citizens, there are small differences in income levels of the rich and the poor, while developing countries and countries with economies in transition have polarized societies, characterized by a large number of poor, a small circle of the rich and very small average class. The Russian Federation belongs to the last circle of countries. The problem of poverty in Russia today is concentrated not in villages, which are traditionally considered the most vulnerable zone in this sense, but in small towns where there are no rural resources, but the resources of a large city have not yet formed, which can act as compensatory mechanisms for alleviating poverty and providing opportunities in the market. labor. Another feature of the spread of poverty at the present time is a sharp change in its structure. Not only an increased number of traditionally vulnerable categories of the population (pensioners, disabled people, large and single-parent families) fell below the poverty line, but also the "new poor" - unemployed, low-paid workers and their dependents, refugees, internally displaced persons, and persons without a fixed abode. In recent years, the "newest poor" have also appeared, including those who have been affected by massive delays in the payment of wages, social benefits, and pensions; those who have already failed in the field of entrepreneurship, self-employment, property transactions and do not have a stable current income above the established minimum; able-bodied citizens who have become uncompetitive as a result of changed requirements and the structure of demand in the labor market; affected by more risky forms and types of employment in the informal sector of the economy. According to official statistics, 34 million people currently live below the poverty line in Russia, which is over a quarter of the country's population. Now the incomes of the richest Russians are 14 times higher than the incomes of the poorest citizens. Equally great is the difference in the so-called per capita income in different regions.

Also, the risk of poverty increases in the absence of a second income in the family, low incomes due to a high level of dependency, etc. According to the Survey of Living Standards of Families with Children, having the first child increases the likelihood of poverty by an average of 9 percentage points, the second by another 12, and the third and subsequent ones by 16 percentage points. Poverty for the Russian people is a fairly new phenomenon. Under socialism, the general standard of living, of course, was not high, but the frankly poor were relatively few. It is poverty that determines the limited access of a significant part of the population of our country to development resources: high-paying jobs, high-quality education and health services, the possibility of successful socialization of children and youth. The low level of income of a significant part of families, combined with an excessive polarization of income, cause a social rift in society, cause social tension, hinder the successful development of the country, and determine the crisis processes in the family and society.

1.2 Causes of poverty

Russia is a poor country in terms of the level and quality of life of its citizens. In the previous chapter, it was said that 35 million people live below the poverty line. These are those who eat poorly, do not have normal housing, do not have the opportunity to spend their leisure time and rest normally. The overwhelming majority of the poor are pensioners, workers, and the unemployed. Half of them have incomes of no more than 1,500 rubles. per family member per month. Another half - no more than 3,000 rubles. Most of the poor are residents of medium and small towns and villages. Moreover, in many Russian regions, almost the entire population falls under the given poverty criteria. The average age of the poor is 47 years. Among them there are much more large, single-parent families, more families, which include pensioners and disabled people.

Many poor people have very poor living conditions, they do not have enough furniture and necessary household appliances. Over 80% of the poor in Russia have less than 25 square meters total area per person. Only 7% of the poor have at least some kind of savings, up to 40% of poor families have debts - including utility bills.

Can poverty be overcome in Russia? The "Russian" poverty has two deep reasons: the unobtrusive social policy of the state and the negative psychological attitude of the majority of Russians, which prevents them from achieving success, including at the professional level. Social insecurity of the population has worsened over the past ten years.

The main reason for poverty in Russia is that the level of requirements of a huge number of Russians to the content and quality of their lives, according to the Soviet tradition, is extremely low.

Ø Most of the working poor are performers on whom almost nothing depends at work. More than 40% of the poor believe that their work is unpromising, more than 70% note low wages and irregular payments. The poor pay much less attention to their professional growth; only 8% of them devote part of their free time to self-education. Every third of the poor has practically come to terms with the low quality of his life and does not believe that he is able to change anything. Most of the poor constantly feel the injustice of everything that happens around them and realize their own helplessness due to the inability to influence what is happening. The majority of the Russian poor are dominated by a psychological orientation rather toward “survival,” rather than success, and the realization of oneself as a person. Their level of requirements for themselves, their life, its content and quality is extremely low. They often want their children only to get a profession that would give them "a guaranteed piece of bread.

Ø Another reason for poverty in Russia is associated with our history and Christian ideology: the poor are pleasing to God, the rich are not. In essence, this was also promoted under the Soviet regime, since it was believed that it was impossible to acquire wealth through an honest way. The consciousness of modern people is still the same: it seems that we understand that the richer each person, the richer society as a whole, but there is too much irritation in us in relation to wealthy people, and not only oligarchs, but also, for example, to our fellow villagers, who have a "good" home and a "strong" economy, even if all this "wealth" is created by the hard work of the whole family. This means that the main reason for our poverty lies in our psychology.

Ø In addition, an indirect factor that also has an impact: the share of unofficial employment is increasing in the Russian economy. Informal employment - hiring an employee to work without a contract and providing such social guarantees as paid leave and sick leave, pension insurance and so on. This method of recruitment is most widespread in developing countries.

Ø By verbal agreement, at least 10-12% of Russians now work on a regular basis, and they are hired for temporary work without signing contracts much more often. Half of those who work without writing find it beneficial to themselves.

According to the latest research by the All-Russian Center for Living Standards, only 9% of Russians can now be classified as middle class. The middle class is a relative concept, each country has its own specifics and its own "norms" for income, quality of housing and level of education.

The Russian "middle peasant" lives much more modestly: on the whole, on the territory of the Russian Federation, in order to be considered a representative of the middle class, it is enough to have an income of 12 to 27 thousand for each family member. He can only postpone for a rainy day from 7 to 65 thousand a year. Compared to developed countries, this is extremely low interest... The middle stratum in developed countries is over 70%. To reach the level of developed European countries, the incomes of Russian families must increase at least 2-3 times.

For Russia, a good salary is about $ 300, which is approximately one and a half to two times higher than the average salary in the regions. In large cities, this amount rises to $ 500. In America, middle-class wages start at $ 1,500 a month. In one of the most prosperous states Latin America- Chile belongs to the middle class families with an income of $ 600 to $ 1600 per month. But in China, its representatives are determined by the ability to purchase a vehicle. Today, less than 1% of the population belongs to the middle class in China.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem of poverty, it is not enough for the state and public organizations to simply carry out social programs to support the poor, but it is also necessary to stimulate an increase in the number of representatives of the middle class. Poverty is the most acute social problem. According to opinion polls, the values ​​and attitudes of the rich and the poor in Russia diverge extremely far. Only joint efforts of the state and society can change the situation for the better. Along with the development of social programs to help the poor, the state should be interested in the progress and progress of the life and behavioral attitudes of Russians.

Chapter 2. Subsistence minimum, expenses and incomes of the population in the Russian Federation

2.1 Subsistence minimum of the population in the Russian Federation

In the Russian Federation, the standard of living of the population is assessed through the indicator of the subsistence minimum. Living wage is an indicator of the minimum composition and structure of consumption material goods and services necessary to preserve human health and life.

The subsistence minimum is a cost estimate of the consumer basket, which includes a minimum set of food products, as well as expenditures on non-food products and services, taxes and mandatory payments, corresponding in terms of the structure of expenditures for these purposes to the budgets of low-income families.

According to Rosstat estimates, the cost of living in 2010 as a whole, based on quarterly data, amounted to 5688 rubles. It turns out that if we consider the whole of 2010, then 17.9 million people lived below the absolute poverty line (12.6% of the population). Compared to 2009, the number of absolutely poor population decreased by 0.4% (by 0.3 million people) [Table 1].

Table 1. - The size of the population with cash incomes below the subsistence level and a shortage of cash income.

2000200520062007200820092010 Population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level: mln. 199.2286.9276.6270.3325.0352.1380.2 as a percentage of the total money income of the population 5.02.11.61.31.31.31.21.2

If we look at the age and sex composition of the population with incomes below the subsistence level, it turns out that in 2010, according to Rosstat, 64.4% of absolutely poor Russians are citizens of working age (men and women from 16 to 59 or 54 years, respectively) [tab. 2].

Table 2. - Distribution of the population with incomes below the subsistence minimum by sex and age groups, in% of the total.

Year 2000200520062007200820092010 By gender and age groups Children under the age of 16: 24,421,821,221,422,623,825.5 up to 1 year0,50,70,70,81,11,11.21-6 years old5,76,06,26,57,38,410,17-15 years old 18,315,114,314,114,114,314.2 Youth aged 16 to 30 22,925,625,625,825,625,624.9 Men aged 31 to 59 18,218,719,018,918,618,719.2 Women aged 31 to 54 21,421,221,121,020,620,320.3 Men aged 60 and over 3.83,53.63.83.53, 12.5 Women aged 55 and over 9.39.19.59.69.18.67.5

Let's pay attention to the fact that a quarter of the poor population are Russians aged 16-30, i.e. the most socially active group of the population. In addition, this is the only group whose share in the age and sex structure of the poor has been steadily increasing since 2000 and has remained virtually unchanged since 2005. Thus, there are more and more young people among the poor - people with the highest social expectations.

Let us also note this fact: pensioners among the poor are by no means the most numerous group. In total, women over 55 and men over 60 accounted for 10% in 2010 (7.5% + 2.5%, respectively) of the total number of the poor. It turns out that pensioners, with their official pensions, which allow them to balance on the brink of a living wage, seem to be almost the wealthiest stratum of the population.

The indicator of the number of citizens living below the poverty line varies significantly not only depending on gender and age, but also depending on the region. Interregional differences are associated both with differences in the amounts of disposable cash incomes of residents of a particular region and with different cost of living (established in the region the subsistence minimum, the level of consumer prices), and with the general level of socio - economic development of a particular region. According to the results of 2010, in the Republic of Ingushetia, almost 22.2% of the population are recognized by official statistics as absolutely poor, while in the Republic of Dagestan there were only 9.2% of the population [Table 3].

Table 3. - The size of the population with cash incomes below the subsistence level (selectively, by region, 2010).

Region Population share,% Bryansk region13.6 Vladimir region18.3Voronezh region19.1Republic of Adygea16.1Krasnodar region15.6Rostov region15.1Republic of Dagestan9.2Republic of Ingushetia22.2Republic of North Ossetia-Alania10.4Moscow10

Ingushetia belongs to the crisis regions that have been subjected to large-scale socio-political conflicts, which is why the economy of this region is far from being in the best condition. Other regions with a poverty headcount above the Russian average are also often classified as underdeveloped regions, whose economies are in a state of prolonged stagnation. The poverty of such regions is stagnant; it is no longer a temporary phenomenon. A person living in such a region is often considered poor.

When assessing the real number of the poor population in Russia, it is also necessary to take into account citizens who are at risk of being below the poverty line at any moment, i.e. those people whose incomes are slightly higher than the subsistence level. These are the citizens who are not formally below the absolute poverty line, but in fact their material situation is no better than that of the officially poor population. An increase in the poverty threshold by 5% leads to an increase in the share of the poor to 16%, or by 1.1 million people.

2.2 Income of the population in the Russian Federation

Another important and objective indicator that characterizes the standard of living of the population is real disposable cash income [Table 4]. The dynamics of this indicator demonstrates significant declines in 1992, 1995 and 1998-99, which were marked by serious economic crises in Russia, which negatively affected the personal budget of Russians. Since 2000, according to Rosstat, there has been a tendency towards an increase in real money income.

Table 4. - Dynamics of real disposable money income of the population, in% to the previous year.

Year% 1991116199252.51993116.41994112.91995851996100.61997105.8199884.1199987.720001122001108.72002111.12003114.92004108,22005111,120061102007113,12008103,82009101,82010104,7

Despite this, in 2010 the level of real disposable money income of the population amounted to only 88.7% of the 1991 level.

Thus, until now the real money incomes of Russians have not reached the level of the beginning of the transition period in the economy.

2.3 Consumer spending of the population in the Russian Federation

Another indicator of poverty can be used consumer spending , their structures. These indicators fairly well reflect the actual standard of living of certain groups of households. Proceeding from this, a citizen or a household in the structure of expenditures of which the share of expenditures on essential goods in general and, in the first place, on food, prevails, can be considered poor.

Since 2001, the real disposable income of the population has been constantly growing. In parallel, there was a decrease in the percentage of spending on food purchases in total consumer spending and an increase in the share of spending on services and non-food items. In 2010, for the entire population, the share of spending on food purchases in total consumer spending was, according to Rosstat, 29.6% [Table 5].

Table 5. - The structure of consumer spending, in% of the total.

2001200520062007200820092010Consumer expenses- Total 100100100100100100100 food and non-alcoholic beverages45,833,231,628,429,130,529,6 alcoholic beverages, tobacco products 3,62,72,72,42,32,42,4 clothes and footwear 13,610,710,910,410,410,410,8 housing services, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 7,111,312,111,610,410,811,3 household appliances, household appliances and home care , 83.8 organization of recreation and cultural events 4.77,16,46,47,77,36,8 education 1,21,82,01,81,61,51,3 hotels, cafes and restaurants 2.62,92,63.03.03 , 43.4 other goods and services 4.14.74.95.25.96.46.2

More significant differences in the structure of consumer spending are observed for population groups with different income levels.

According to Rosstat, in the structure of consumer spending of the poorest Russians, the share of spending on food purchases in 2010 was 44.7%, while among the population with the highest incomes - only 21.1%. At the same time, it is obvious that, in absolute terms, the amount of food expenditures for wealthy Russians significantly exceeds the amount of food expenditures for the poorest. In addition, the consumption structure of the poor is significantly biased towards subsistence consumption (for example, growing vegetables and fruits in summer cottages and making homemade preparations from them for the winter).

Such an analysis of consumer spending by population groups clearly confirms that the poor, in comparison with the rich, spend more on essential goods and, first of all, on food [Table 6].

Table 6. - The structure of household consumption expenditures by population groups with different income levels in 2010

All households from them by population groups depending on the level of disposable resources Consumer expenses- Total 100100100100100100 including by purpose of consumption: food and non-alcoholic beverages29,644,740,837,329,221,1 alcoholic beverages, tobacco products 2,42,62,72,62,42,3 clothes and footwear10,89,210,611,112,110,4 housing services, water, electricity, gas and other types of fuel11 , 316,814,912,910,39,2 household items, household appliances and home care 84,64,54,22,9 organization of recreation and cultural events 6,83,24,05,48,87,5 education 1,30,71,21,42,01,0 hotels, cafes and restaurants 3,41,01,41,93, 34.9 other goods and services 6.25.05.25.86.76.7

The distribution of durable goods among population groups with different income levels is very uneven. The smallest gap between the population group with the lowest incomes and the group with the highest incomes in 2010, according to Rosstat, was in the presence of washing machines and tape recorders in the household - almost one to one. The maximum discrepancy is 2 times - according to the presence of a computer. This discrepancy is understandable: for the rich, in contrast to the poor, the computer becomes a basic commodity.

Table 7. - Population of durable goods by population groups with different income levels in 2010

population groups depending on the level of disposable resursovpervaya (with the least available resources) vtorayatretyachetvertayapyataya (with the most available resources)) Televizory145152161179171Videomagnitofony, videokamery3640465460Magnitofony, pleery2728293030Personalnye kompyutery3249546865Muzykalnye tsentry3235394639Holodilniki, morozilniki113119119126123Stiralnye mashiny979799101100Elektropylesosy8489929595Shveynye, knitting mashiny3642444844

So, the low income level of a significant part of the population of the Russian Federation, combined with an excessive polarization of income, cause a social rift in society as a whole, cause social tension, hinder the successful development of our country, and determine the crisis processes.

Chapter 3. The main directions of the socio-economic policy of the Russian Federation to combat poverty

Regardless of the different interpretations of this concept, poverty has affected all segments of the population, taking on the broadest scale in the Russian Federation.

According to standards The World Bank, Russia by GDP indicator refers to medium-developed countries, and in terms of poverty - to developing countries.

The main direction for overcoming poverty is to ensure productive employment, increase labor efficiency, create conditions for the able-bodied part of the population to earn enough and thereby support themselves and their families. In this case, the amount of wages received acts as the main guarantee against poverty. The role of the state is to create market conditions to enhance the competitiveness of the national economy through ensuring the competitiveness of Russian enterprises - the implementation of the necessary industrial policy, the appropriate adaptation of the education and training system, the introduction of measures to protect domestic producers.

ü The first step of the policy in the field of overcoming poverty is to build a typology of poor families and determine their target groups - complete low-income families, large families, families with disabled people, families with the unemployed. Thorough analysis of the causes of poverty in the context of these groups, implementation of a differentiated approach to these groups.

It is necessary to check the needs of the respective families, based on two criteria:

) the total family income is below the officially established poverty line (standard),

) the value of personal property is below some officially established regional minimum standard. Only the simultaneous observance of these two conditions can be considered a sufficient basis to qualify for social assistance.

ü Ensuring greater selectivity in the provision of social assistance, its predominantly declarative nature and the targeted nature of social payments, is one of the most effective ways to combat poverty. Here it is important to prioritize what and how much resources to distribute in the form of social assistance, to whom to give these resources - the poor, children, pensioners, the unemployed; in what proportion to divide them, to develop criteria for their "division".

When choosing among socially vulnerable groups of the population, it is necessary to compare the officially established poverty line for them with their income, the officially established minimum standard of property for them with their property.

ü The study of the problem of child poverty, including homelessness, street children, and children in crisis families, deserves special attention.

An important task of social policy is to identify barriers to access to social protection and social services for the population.

The current system of identification and social support of poor families and the population in the form of numerous benefits, benefits, and other types of assistance is imperfect and needs to be adapted to the conditions of a market economy. Currently, funds allocated for social support of the poor are distributed ineffectively, often not going to those families that are really poor. As a result, the really poorest part of the population finds itself in an increasingly difficult situation, and stagnant, long-term poverty is becoming more widespread.

Conclusion

Poverty is not only a lack of food, clothing, poor housing, and people's lack of access to necessary education and health care. And not only the lack of a sufficient amount of money to purchase everything you need for life, at least at the minimum level. The problem of poverty also has a humanistic dimension; it affects the moral and ethical aspects of the relationship between the government and the people of the state.

The poverty of the population of the Russian Federation for a long time continues to be one of the main social threats to the successful development of society. The implementation of various reforms in our country has seriously changed the social structure of society. There was a rapid social stratification, very rich and extremely poor citizens appeared. Most people have lost the social protection of the state, and they are forced to adapt to life in conditions of instability. Consequently, in such conditions, the emergence of a large number of poor people is inevitable.

Failure to meet the minimum human needs is already considered poverty. It, in turn, can lead either to a change in the normal life of a person, or to his death. The most vulnerable remain young people, women, people of retirement age, low-skilled workers.

Poverty reduction measures carried out The Russian state are part of major political, economic and social measures. Our state has positioned a fairly effective set of tools in resolving such a problem as poverty.

For a faster reduction of the poor population, it is necessary to identify those constituent entities of the Russian Federation in which it is really necessary to accelerate the reduction of poverty. So, it would be enough to provide support to a small number of regions with a dynamically developing economy in order to significantly reduce the total number of poor in the country. Then, efforts could be focused on halving the poverty rate in those regions where at least 50% of the country's total poor live.

In a single state, it is necessary to help everyone who has problems. The stronger must support the weaker. This will allow in short time solve the nationwide problem of poverty reduction.

Bibliographic list

2.Federal Law "On the cost of living in the Russian Federation" dated October 24, 1997, No. 134 - FZ.

.Bobkov V., Russian Poverty: Measurement and Ways to Overcome // Society and Economy, - №3, - 2005, pp. 71-78.

.Vaneev O. Problems of urban poverty: municipal policy and practice. // Man and Labor 2010, no. 2.

.Denisov N. Expenditures and incomes of the population of Russia // Economy and Life, 2001. №6. C.3.

.Eliseev I.I., Vasiliev E.K. Demography and population statistics. - M .: Finance and Statistics, 2006.

.Leonidova A.I. Poverty problem in Russia. M., 2000.

.Maksimova T.N., Social development and living standards // Bulletin of Economics, - No. 6, - 1999, pp. 53-58.

.Neshchadin A. Poverty is a vice of Russia. // Man and Labor 2004, no.

.Razumov A., Classification of the main approaches to the definition and measurement of poverty // Man and Labor, - No. 9, - 2002, pp. 27-28.

.Rzhanitsyna L., Poverty in Russia: causes, features, ways to reduce // The Economist, - No. 4, - 2001, pp. 71-73.

.Roik V. Poverty: Causes, Effects, Ways to Overcome. // Man and Labor 2010, no.

.Romanov A.N. The standard of living of the population / A.N. Romanov, V.M. Zherebin - M .: Unity-Dana., - 2008.

.Savchenko P., Fedorova M., Shelkova E. Level and quality of life: concepts, indicators, state of the art in Russia // Russian economic journal. - 2000. - № 7.

.Sagdarov A.A. Economic demography. Tutorial... - M .: Infra - M, 2005

.Surinov A. Problems of measuring social inequality and poverty in Russia. // Society and Economy 2004, no. 3.

.Tikhomirov N.P. Demography. Methods of analysis and forecasting - Moscow: Exam Publishing House, 2005.

.Shanin V., Approaches to solving the problem of poverty, // Man and Labor, - No. 5, - 2007, pp. 12-17.

.Shishkov Y., Poverty level in the modern world // MEMO, - №1, - 2006, pp. 3-14.

20. federal Service state statistics.

Http: // demography. narod.ru/ Demography of Russia.

.Social aspects of the problem of poverty in modern Russia.

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Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… ... 2

1. Concept, essence and typology of poverty ………………………………… ..4

2. Indicators of the standard of living of the population in modern Russia: demographic portrait poor ……………………………………………… 7

3. Measurement and strategies for combating poverty in modern Russia ... ... ... 11

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… .21

References ……………………………………………………………… 23

Introduction

Poverty has always been an urgent problem, but in Russia this issue is especially acute, since in conditions of poverty, including the state of poverty, today almost every fourth person lives in our country.

It is poverty that determines the limited access of a significant part of the population of the Russian Federation to development resources: high-paid work, high-quality education and health services, the possibility of successful socialization of children and youth, etc.

And in this work I would like to show how complex poverty is in its structure, and how many different approaches to its measurement are available. It is also important to determine the ways of solving this problem in relation to the peculiarities of Russian society.

The subject is the peculiarities of the social status of the population belonging to the poor class.

The purpose of writing an essay should be the study of the problem of poverty in the modern Russian Federation.

Based on the goal, a number of objectives can be defined:

1. Define the concept, essence and typology of poverty.

2. To describe the socio-demographic portrait of the poor population in modern Russia.

4. Describe approaches to the study and measurement of poverty.

5. Identify the causes of poverty.

6. Describe technologies to combat poverty.

1. Concept, essence and typology of poverty.

Poverty is a complex concept, historically conditioned, and multifactorial. There is no strict, unambiguous and generally accepted definition of poverty. This concept is constantly being concretized and modified.

Poverty is a characteristic of the economic situation of an individual or a group, in which they cannot pay the cost of necessary goods themselves.

Poverty is the inability to maintain a certain acceptable standard of living.

Poverty is a condition in which a person's immediate needs exceed his ability to meet them. (At the same time, this definition is not entirely accurate, since it is not clear what these or those needs are, and what meaning they have for a person.) 1

Poverty in modern Russia is not homogeneous and has several levels, which differ in material status, social and professional activities, and leisure preferences of people.

In poverty, two levels are quite clearly distinguished - simply poverty and misery. And there is a debate about which citizens should be classified as poor and which as beggars. We will highlight three points of view regarding this issue. Tikhonova in her article notes the level and way of life that correspond rather to the concept of "poverty" rather than "simple poverty", which is distinguished by the following characteristics: accumulated debts, including rent, the absence of such household items (even if very old), like a vacuum cleaner, a wall unit or upholstered furniture, a carpet, a color TV, and poor living conditions. Add to this the inaccessibility of any paid services, poor family relationships, on average lower incomes than those of the simply poor. In general, we can say that at the poverty level, the families of the “old” poor are currently concentrated, to quite ordinary families.

The listed characteristics of poverty, taken as a whole, correctly reflect the realities of modern Russian society. Indeed, the possession of a twenty-year-old black-and-white TV set, obsolete and worn-out furniture of the same period, inherited from relatives, indicates that the family's financial situation is far from prosperous.

There are also two forms of poverty: sustainable and floating. The first is related to the fact that a low level of social security, as a rule, leads to deterioration in health, dequalification, deprofessionalization, and ultimately to degradation. Poor parents reproduce potentially poor children, which is determined by their health, education, and qualifications. Social studies of the stability of poverty have confirmed this hypothesis and have shown that people who are “born permanently poor” remain so throughout their lives. The second form, much less common, is associated with the fact that the poor sometimes make incredible efforts and “jump out” of their social, virtually vicious circle, adapting to new conditions, defending their right to a better life. Of course, not only subjective, personal factors, but also the objective conditions created by the state and society play an essential role in such a "jump".

With regard to the practical needs of social policy, another distinction is decisive: the poverty of the “weak” and the poverty of the “strong”.

The poverty of the “weak” is the poverty of disabled and hard-to-work people, disabled, sick, physically and psychologically unstable, as well as workers who are forced to bear an unreasonably heavy load (breadwinners large families etc.). It can be called social poverty, directly conditioned by the socio-demographic properties of certain categories of the population. One or another manifestation of poverty of the “weak” is practically inevitable in modern societies. Social poverty, at least its relative form, is a constant feature of social life. 2

In contrast to the poverty of the “weak”, the poverty of the “strong” arises in extraordinary conditions, when full-fledged workers, usually able to receive an income that gives a “normal” standard of living, find themselves in a situation in which they cannot provide with their average normal work what is accepted at a given time and in a given society, the level of well-being. From this point of view, the poverty of the “strong” can be defined as industrial-labor or economic poverty, thereby emphasizing its direct dependence on the crisis situation in the economy, when an employee does not receive earnings of the usual scale.

A characteristic feature of modern Russia is that the poverty of the “weak” in our country is combined with the poverty of the “strong”.

Thus, we can conclude that poverty is not homogeneous and has its own complex structure.

1. Indicators of the standard of living of the population in modern Russia: a demographic portrait of the poor

One definition is the inability to maintain a certain acceptable standard of living. So what is the standard of living and what is its relationship to poverty?

The standard of living of the population as a socio-economic category represents the level and degree of satisfaction of people's needs for material benefits, household and cultural services.

The standard of living, its dynamics and differentiation are largely determined by the level of development of the productive forces, the volume and structure of national wealth, the production and use of the gross national product, the nature of distribution and redistribution of income.

An increase in the standard of living will create opportunities, a material base for improving the quality of life. The latter is not limited to the level of consumption of goods and services, but acts as a generalizing characteristic of the socio-economic results of the development of society and includes the average life expectancy, the level of morbidity, working conditions and safety, the availability of information, ensuring human rights, etc.

Living conditions can be broadly divided into working, living and leisure conditions.

Working conditions include sanitary and hygienic, psychophysiological, aesthetic and socio-psychological conditions. Living conditions are the provision of housing to the population, its quality, the development of a network of consumer services (baths, laundries, hairdressers, repair shops, rental points, etc.), the state of trade and Catering, public transport, medical service... Leisure conditions are associated with the use of people's free time. Free time is a part of non-working time intended for the development of the personality, more complete satisfaction of its social, spiritual and intellectual needs.

The most important characteristic of poverty is its profile - the socio-demographic composition of the population. 3

In modern Russia, the poor should include not only unemployed pensioners, invalids, unemployed unemployed, homeless children, some part of labor migrants. The main thing: according to the All-Russian Bank, the poor in Russia are primarily working, single parents (mainly single mothers) raising minors. Also, the most vulnerable groups include young people who are unable to find work after graduation. And taking into account that wages are the main source of monetary income for the majority of the population, then a simple inability to get a job (in most cases, if you do not take into account, for example, wealthy relatives who can help financially. In this situation, we think it is inappropriate to classify a person as poor only if according to the absolute indicator) almost automatically means poverty.

Sociologists have developed a list of the traits that define poverty: economic and social dependence; lack of clear models of role behavior; deviant behavior: drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution; alienation and political passivity; lack of life plans and self-confidence; increased conflict within family relations (rudeness, quarrels between parents and children, frequent divorces); admiration for physical strength.

Before revealing different ways measuring poverty, let us consider the reasons why this phenomenon occurs in society.

In one source, information was found in which poverty is a consequence of the following factors:

Economic (falling incomes of the population, high differentiation, low wages, unemployment)

Social (disability, old age, child neglect)

Demographic (single-parent families, families with a high load of dependents, youth and older generation with weak positions in the labor market)

Political (disintegration of the country, rupture of interregional ties and violation of the vertical of power, military conflicts, forced migration)

Regional and geographical (depressed mono-industrial regions, subsidized regions with low economic potential, northern regions dependent on centralized food and resource supplies). 4

This classification of factors, it seems to us, is generalized, where the causes of poverty are determined, depending on which sphere of life is being considered. But, there is another interesting group of factors of downward social mobility, which, in our opinion, should also not be overlooked:

1. criminality - downward social mobility is associated with criminals, with criminal behavior (theft, extortion, violence, robbery);

2. personal bad luck in life - getting to the "social bottom" is explained by illness, disability, fate, poor upbringing in the family;

3. own guilt, tendency to vices - the process of downward social mobility is explained by drunkenness, drug addiction, substance abuse, prostitution;

4. social isolation - downward mobility is caused by refusal to obey social norms, isolation from society, loss of ties with family and loved ones, lack of work. 5

In principle, there is something in common in both groups of factors. But in the second, I would especially like to note such reasons as a tendency to vices and criminality. If the first classification mentions only to a certain extent the objective causes of poverty in Russia (old age, minors, etc.), then the second, most of all, was attracted by the fact that it takes into account people's own motives, their psychological state, level of education, etc. , we already see the reason not in those factors that, in principle, may not depend on us (disability, underdevelopment of the region in which a person lives, etc.), but in the fact that a person falls to the “social bottom” through personal , their own fault, realizing or not the whole horror of what is happening. In this case, the personality itself is taken into account, which can potentially fall into living conditions characterized by poverty.

At the same time, attention is drawn to the ideology of social dependency, formed during the period of socialism. Not all Russians are capable of being active, entrepreneurial and initiative; they are confident in their own strengths. A significant part of the population takes a passive position, believing that the state is obliged to provide work for all able-bodied citizens and maintain a certain level of well-being of the population.

1. Measuring and Strategies for Fighting Poverty in Contemporary Russia

Currently, there are various approaches to measuring poverty and its boundaries, in accordance with which different methods of positioning certain social groups and methods of regulating their material situation are developed.

In Russia, the number and proportion of the population with monetary incomes below the subsistence minimum are considered as official poverty indicators, the value of which is quarterly approved by the Government in accordance with the Federal Law "On the Subsistence Minimum in the Russian Federation."

Minimum income (living wage) - the level of income that ensures the purchase of the minimum set of goods and services necessary to maintain health and maintain a person's life. The subsistence minimum is expressed in terms of the value of real goods. It includes food costs based on minimum sizes and consumption, expenditure on non-food goods and services, and taxes and mandatory payments.

However, the level (threshold) of poverty according to the adopted international standards should be equal to two living wages. The middle-income stratum of the population should include families in which incomes are at least seven living wages per person. A kind of indicator by which a Russian family today can be ranked among the middle class is, for example, the possibility of acquiring housing that does not cause significant material hardships.

Declared and real incomes are often very different. With the same income, citizens can have different property and personal resources that go beyond the established standards. In particular, the crop grown by him on his own is not taken into account as a citizen's income. personal plot or a vegetable garden for personal consumption. However, if he managed to sell the surplus of agricultural products on the market, then the profit received should be taken into account as his additional income... Of course, the material capabilities of a family with a dacha or land plot, own house or apartment, car, computer, etc., differ significantly from the capabilities of a family that does not have such resources.

For the whole society, it will be useful to those studies that analyze the features of gender and socio-cultural manifestations of poverty in Russia, identify groups of the population with more high degree risk of falling into the group of the poorest citizens. But today we need not a simple statement of facts, but scientifically verified recommendations for solving urgent problems. Consideration of poverty in the vertical section of income deserves special attention. The state should take care of raising the standard of living of those citizens whose incomes most of all lag behind the subsistence minimum and should not allow them to decline.

One of the criteria for the civilization of any state in the social sphere is the maintenance of an acceptable standard of living for a given country for those groups of the population (families), which, for some reason, were unable to comply even at the minimum level with the customs and living standards accepted in society (eat, dress, spend leisure time, etc.). In other words, the material situation of this part of the population, the level of their incomes do not allow them to satisfy a certain range of minimum needs - necessary for life, preservation of working capacity, procreation, a certain social recognition. Failure to meet the minimum needs of a person (family) is considered poverty.

A need is a need, a need for something that requires satisfaction. The existing standards reflect the current scientific understanding of personal needs. Personal needs reflect the objective need for a certain set and amount of material goods and services and social conditions that ensure the all-round activity of a particular person. Personal needs are divided into physiological (physical), social and intellectual (spiritual). 6

Physiological needs are decisive - of the first order, since they express the needs of a person as a biological being. These are the needs of people in everything that is necessary for their existence, development and reproduction. In their composition, the urgent, primary, are the needs for food, clothing, shoes, housing, rest, sleep, physical activity.

Social needs are associated with the fact that a person belongs to society, occupies a certain place in it. Social needs include the needs for work, creativity, creativity, social activity, communication with other people, that is, in everything that is a product of social life.

Intellectual needs relate to education, advanced training, creative activity generated by the inner state of a person.

Intellectual and social needs are not essential needs and are satisfied after a certain degree of satisfaction of primary needs comes. They do not have a direct assessment, although they largely depend on the state of culture in society, the general level and quality of life of the population.

Failure to meet needs can lead either to a change in the normal life of a person, or to his death.

Depending on what needs a person is able to satisfy, three types of poverty are distinguished, while proceeding from three basic concepts: absolute, relative, subjective.

Absolute poverty is a condition in which an individual, on his own income, is not able to satisfy even the basic needs for food, housing, clothing, heat, or is able to satisfy only the minimum needs that ensure biological survival.

There are three levels of absolute poverty in Russia:

1-poverty, the deepest acute poverty. In a situation of absolute poverty, the deepest poverty are people who do not have a physiological minimum means of livelihood. These are those who are on the verge of permanent malnutrition, if not hunger, or beyond. In today's Russian situation, a conditional indicator of such a boundary can be considered the cost of the simplest set of food products included in the official subsistence minimum.

2- need, average poverty. It covers those groups of the population who have enough funds for the simplest physiological needs, but who cannot satisfy social needs, even the most elementary ones. In these groups, there is usually no regular malnutrition, but clothes and shoes are not renewed, there is no funds for treatment, rest, etc. social minimum (as opposed to the cost of only one food set, which indicates the approximate limits of a purely physiological minimum). Thus, people whose incomes are less than the official subsistence minimum, but more than half or two-thirds of it, find themselves in a state of need.

3-insecurity, or lack of security, moderate poverty. Of course, quantitative boundaries, expressed in money, are rather arbitrary. Elementary needs are satisfied - both physiological and social, but more complex and higher needs remain unmet. Under such conditions, people eat more or less satisfyingly (although their diet is by no means balanced and their nutrition cannot be considered healthy), they somehow renew their clothes, get treatment, and rest. However, all this is done at a level and in forms that do not reach the standards that are considered normal and worthy within the framework of a given culture. In other words, a living wage is provided here, but there is no prosperity. 7

Absolute poverty is contrasted with relative poverty.

Relative poverty is the inability to maintain a certain standard of living accepted in a given society. The relative concept of poverty is based on comparing household monetary incomes not with the subsistence minimum (absolute indicator), but with the average household income in the country (relative indicator). That is, it shows how poor you are in comparison with other people.

The boundaries of absolute and relative poverty do not coincide. In society, absolute poverty can be eliminated, but relative poverty will always remain. After all, inequality is a constant companion of complex societies. Thus, relative poverty persists even when the living standards of all sectors of society have improved.

Subjective poverty - based on the assessments of their own situation by the people themselves; feeling that they do not have enough to live, determining the level of poverty for themselves. Recently, quite a lot of sociological research has been carried out on how a person himself assesses his position in society, whether he considers himself to be in the so-called "middle" class, or whether he considers himself to be classified as poor. And sociologists have come to the following conclusion: according to numerous studies, many more people feel poor than according to the data on absolute poverty (in terms of the subsistence minimum). This refers to the fact that, for example, it seems to us, a person, in order to feel belonging to the middle class, needs satisfaction of needs of a much larger order than those that he has at the moment.

An alternative way to define and measure poverty is based on its assessments through deprivation, which is a completely different tool for measuring the real needs of the poor, which allows not only to formulate other criteria for selecting poor families, but, if necessary, to determine the priorities of targeted social assistance. This is the essence of the deprivation approach - in assessments of poverty, an integral part of the concept of its relative understanding and study. The deprivation approach requires taking into account a number of material and social indicators in order to determine a qualitative "threshold", which means social exclusion, that is, the actual exclusion of a certain part of the population from normal living conditions.

Poverty assessment based on the deprivation approach should be distinguished into quantitative and qualitative aspects of deprivation.

Qualitative filling of various levels of deprivation (poverty levels):

The first stage of deprivation is a stage that characterizes living standards close to average and does not mean a significant deviation from the way of life generally accepted in the Russian community. Families at this stage need to improve their living conditions, save money on the purchase of modern expensive durables, paid educational services, family recreation and entertainment.

The second stage of deprivation is the stage of constraint (low income) - when there is not enough money for the delicacies loved in the family, gifts for loved ones, newspapers, magazines, books; the quality of leisure for adults and children decreases; the family cannot afford to buy a washing machine, visit relatives living far away; refuses paid services, primarily necessary medical services.

The third stage of deprivation - the stage of acute need (poverty) - deprivation is concentrated on the quality of food, lack of clothing and shoes (adult family members are forced to refuse to renew them), it is difficult for a family to maintain housing in order, to have simple everyday furniture, to organize, if necessary, a ritual ceremony (funeral, commemoration), purchase vital medicines, limit the possibility of inviting guests and going out.

The fourth stage of deprivation is the stage of poverty, when resources are not enough for adequate nutrition, the family saves on hygiene items, does not renew clothes for children as they grow, refuses to buy fruits and juices, and does not have such durable items as a TV and refrigerator. 8

It should be noted that many types of deprivation experienced by Russians are not yet directly associated in the mass consciousness with poverty, since they are present among the majority of the population.

The weak point of any quantitative assessment of poverty is the neglect of a wide range of other available resources that affect the maintenance of the material condition of people.

Measuring poverty is possible only if the economic development of the country, its resources and potential are taken into account. Naturally, the level of development of European countries differs from Russia. And therefore, the application of foreign methods to our system and our way of life is rather difficult, but possible. For this, it seems to us, we need to try to bring our standard of living closer to European standards.

In the country, according to official data alone, there are over 27 million poor citizens who receive incomes below the subsistence level.

The problem of fighting poverty is multifaceted. Its solution lies in the plane of economics, politics, law, culture, education, medicine.

The fight against poverty is an integral part of the general social and economic policy of any state. And there are no ready-made recipes and simple solutions.

The most important priorities in the fight against poverty in modern Russia are:

first, it is the creation of conditions for the self-sufficiency of the normal level of well-being of all families with able-bodied adults on a labor basis;

second, the formation of a system of effective support for vulnerable groups of the population (the elderly, the disabled, families with a high dependency burden, families in extreme situations) and guarantees of non-discriminatory access to free resources.

It is necessary to create conditions for an independent way out of poverty for the able-bodied strata of the population on a labor basis.

It is necessary to gradually abandon the categorical method of social protection of the population, revise and reduce the number of beneficiaries, focusing on the priority support of the poorest population, which does not have an objective opportunity to receive labor income.

the main task state social assistance - to become a more effective means of social protection of the poor, while not encouraging social dependency.

Implementation of poverty alleviation programs is associated with significant administrative, organizational and other costs. There are problems of equitable distribution of received aid within the household due to intrafamilial inequality, irrational behavior, social pathologies, etc., which is practically beyond the control of the authorities. Finally, the strategy for overcoming poverty itself should stimulate people to make their own living.

In our opinion, the assessment of the poverty level should be approached from a broader standpoint than simply based on the size and proportion of the population with incomes or even with disposable resources below the subsistence level. We believe that the measurement of the level of poverty should be supplemented with an assessment of the provision of housing, since the subsistence minimum also presupposes the maintenance of existing housing.

We believe that the combination of information on current income and housing provision in assessing poverty will be an important step forward towards its comprehensive measurement. This will lead to a broader view of Russian poverty and its structure.

So that in regions with lower living wages than its all-Russian value, there is no decrease in the level of state guarantees, it is necessary in the federal state budget for the next year, stipulate the ratio of the minimum wage and the subsistence minimum for the constituent entity of the Russian Federation with the lowest living wage.

Huge interregional differences in the proportion of the population with incomes below the subsistence level, as well as in the number of the poor, suggest a possible sequence of poverty reduction. In our opinion, it would be advisable to highlight the following priorities in solving this problem.

For a faster reduction of the poor population in the country as a whole, the federal center needs to identify those constituent entities of the Russian Federation in which it is realistic to accelerate the reduction of poverty. So, it would be enough to provide support to a small number of regions with a dynamically developing economy in order to significantly reduce the total number of poor in the country.

Then, efforts could be focused on halving the poverty rate in those regions where at least 50% of the country's total poor live. As such regions, those dynamically developing regions in which a greater number of poor people live could be identified and supported by the federal center.

In conclusion, efforts government agencies management should be focused on fully solving the problem of reducing the number of the poor in half. 9

In real life, these priorities cannot be realized in their pure form. To the best of its ability, each constituent entity of the Russian Federation will reduce the number of the poor without expecting additional support for its efforts.

If you first provide assistance to the stronger, then the resources of the state will increase faster and in large volumes. This will allow more substantial help to the less powerful, and then to the weakest. All this will make it possible to solve the national problem of poverty reduction in a shorter time.

At present, a possible way to escape poverty is a strong authoritative, but not authoritarian government, which will set as its main goal - to improve the living standards of the population with the full support of those who earn their living by honest labor and to intensify terror against those who steal. If you do not fight poverty now, then all talk about a society of equal opportunities can be forgotten for a long time, if not forever.

From all of the above, the conclusion suggests itself: all these positions regarding the solution of the problems of poverty are correct. But there are some discrepancies between them. Let's say one point of view says that the top priority is to support the poorest and most vulnerable.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that poverty cannot be eradicated completely. However, this does not mean that poverty should not be tackled. Corresponding efforts have been and are being made. In this case, enormous efforts have been placed on the state itself, and thanks to a correctly and reasonably conducted social policy, it is quite possible to reduce the degree of its severity.

At the same time, there is no single method for both the definition of poverty and its measurement. It is necessary to use an integrated approach in order to most fully reflect the state of society at the moment.

The method of measuring poverty officially adopted in Russia is based on the concept of absolute poverty, when the minimum needs (needs) and the range of goods and services that satisfy these needs (the composition of the so-called minimum consumer basket) are determined. At the same time, other ways of measuring poverty cannot be ruled out.

But the very inner state of the Russian person tells us that poverty in our country is not a vice and there is nothing shameful about it (in contrast to the perception of poverty by Europeans, for whom being poor is equated with shame and alienation from society). Rather, on the contrary, it is believed that begging is “a special Christian feat” that must be respected and honored.

The main feature of poverty in Russia is that the majority of people in this category are families of able-bodied and, as a rule, working people (moreover, often those who have only accrued wages and not paid on time).

And therefore, it is necessary to revise the labor legislation. And it will be better and more effective if the minimum wage is set at the regional level, depending on its specific social and economic situation, comparing it with the subsistence minimum.

In general, it is necessary to coordinate joint efforts of both the state as a whole and each citizen (activation of internal potential).

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9 Davydova N.M., Sedova N.N., The rich and the poor in modern Russia // SOTSIS, - №3 - 2012, p. 274

PAGE \ * MERGEFORMAT 2

3. The problem of poverty in modern Russia

One of the most acute manifestations of the problem social inequalities there is a polarization of poverty and wealth, the transformation of poverty into the norm of life for a significant part of our fellow citizens. What are the perceptions of Russians about the causes of poverty and the degree of its prevalence in modern Russian society? Where is the line, the presence of which is directly associated in the public consciousness with poverty?

Asking the respondents the question "If among the people from your immediate environment there are those whom you could call living below the poverty line, then what are the reasons for their current difficult situation?" the other is to understand its root causes. It must be said that only 17% of the respondents said that they did not have to deal with those living below the poverty line in their immediate environment. The rest of the answers can be conditionally divided into three large groups:

1) poverty as a result of socio-economic conditions; 2) poverty as a result of family and situational problems; 3) poverty as a consequence of the individual characteristics of people and / or their own choice.

The majority of Russians are sure that their relatives, friends, acquaintances ended up in poverty as a result of economic reforms that led to unemployment (36%), instability of the financial situation caused by non-payment of salaries or delayed pensions (30%), reduction of social guarantees and actual refusal of the state from social security of the needy (37%).

Nevertheless, the respondents understood that almost everyone found themselves in such economic conditions, but by no means all fell below the poverty line. The presence of certain characteristics increased the risk of impoverishment for some Russians against the general economic background. Among the characteristics named were poor health (38%), low educational and qualification level (21%), living in a poor region (21%), the presence of a large number of dependents (17%). In addition, many Russians found themselves in poverty due to an unfavorable combination of circumstances associated with their personal troubles - family misfortunes (25%), lack of support from relatives, friends (14%), and with a low standard of living of their parents and starting lack of necessary resources for survival (17% each).

Among the reasons for the slide into poverty were named such individual characteristics of people - alcoholism, drug addiction (32%), laziness, inability to live (17%), unwillingness to change the usual way of life (15%). Another 8% of the population felt that their friends were simply unlucky.

Sociologists who study the nature of socio-economic inequalities come to the conclusion that none of the explanatory variables (individual characteristics of people, socio-economic conditions, family-situational problems) can still claim to be the main determining cause of the stratification into rich and poor. This is also indicated by the data obtained in the course of this study. There are many reasons for the deepening of social inequality, and often they are intertwined in the fate of a particular person in the most unexpected way. Thus, the combination of unfavorable life circumstances against the background of an unstable socio-economic situation leads to poverty in modern Russian society.

However, the problem is that often Russians and many politicians interpret the state of poverty in different ways - both as a low level of income or spending, and as a lack of necessary resources, and as the impossibility of maintaining certain living standards, and as a certain sense of self in society. This is the main difficulty in assessing the prevalence of this phenomenon in the community, which complicates the effectiveness of measures taken to combat poverty.

As mentioned above, in Russia, by all accounts, poverty is very widespread - only 17% of the population did not encounter poor families in their immediate environment. Moreover, people of different incomes observe poverty directly around them, although the needy themselves face it many times more often than the wealthy strata of the population (in the first case, every tenth, in the second - every third respondent). Nevertheless, if we rely on the indirect evidence of the respondents, the situation with poverty in modern Russia may seem truly critical. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with the question of what constitutes poverty and what people mean when answering this question.

Many researchers have noted earlier that the intuitive understanding of poverty by Russian citizens usually lies in the mainstream of comparing their situation with the situation of those around them. The main thing that guides Russians in assessing the degree of satisfaction with their own or someone else's material situation is not to deviate from the generally accepted, most widespread standard of living, that is, to be able to live no worse than the majority. Subjective opinion on this issue is often based on the principle of social comparison with significant reference groups.

However, in addition to subjective mass perceptions, there are objective indicators of the standard of living and an official point of view on the degree of need of the population. Consider the situation with Russian poverty from different sides.

Official ideas about poverty in Russia are based on its absolute understanding, which presupposes the formal correspondence of incomes to the officially established subsistence minimum - PM. Proceeding from this, the majority of politicians, officials and Russian citizens interpret poverty in terms of disposable income, and the indicator of falling into poverty is their comparison with the cost of the minimum consumer basket and the living wage.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, in 2005 the share of the Russian population with incomes below the established subsistence minimum was 15.8% of the Russian population. Moreover, in recent years, there has been a tendency to reduce this indicator.

(for example, in 2004 this share was 17.8%).

However, the “living wage” criterion can give different results depending on what is meant by it. The methodology for calculating the subsistence minimum, which is the basis for determining the statistical “poverty lines”, has been repeatedly subjected to justified criticism from authoritative experts. The fact is that in the context of inflationary processes, the restructuring of basic expenditures in the budgets of families and dynamic changes in the structure of consumption, the official poverty standard, developed on the basis of Federal Law 2000, morally and physically outdated. Special measures are needed to revise the methodology itself, and, first of all, to reject the obvious tendency to underestimate the share of necessary non-food expenditures in the minimum consumer basket. Everyone knows how the large-scale reforms of recent years in housing and communal services and other social spheres affected the aggregate budgets of families, and what additional, but vital costs are borne by Russians in this regard.

Therefore, one of the objectives of our study was to get an idea of ​​what the opinion of the population itself is about the required value of the subsistence minimum at the present time. The respondents considered that having an average per capita income of no more than 3,500 rubles suggests that the family lives below the subsistence level. At the same time, our study fixes the following statistically interesting fact- the median (mean) average per capita income, which was declared by our respondents, also amounted to about 3,500 rubles a month (more precisely, 3,625 rubles). This suggests that in the Russian community there is a clear idea of ​​some generally accepted standard that reflects the standard of living of the majority, and deviation from it indicates an unfavorable financial situation, which limits the ability to lead a lifestyle generally accepted in this community. That is, the data clearly testify in favor of the adequacy of Russians' estimates of the size of the subsistence allowance, which was not taken from the ceiling, but turned out to be quite comparable with the real "median" level of income in the country.

We also asked the respondents to determine at what income a Russian family can be considered living below the poverty line. Here we are talking about what is, in the understanding of Russians, actualized poverty as a state of noticeable deviation from generally accepted living standards in terms of income. On average, in Russia, the respondents named the per capita income as the poverty line in the amount of 2,000 rubles per person per month, that is, about 60% of the required subsistence minimum. Let us emphasize (and this is confirmed by the data of many studies) that Russians do not put into the concept of PM not physiologically necessary for survival, but rather a social minimum that guarantees "a modest but more or less decent existence."

Curiously, this is consistent with the experience of world social policy, since poverty in modern industrial society is usually viewed not as an absolute, but as a relative condition. The assessment of the degree of need of the population, who has the right to apply for social support in case of falling into poverty, in many countries of the world has long been carried out by the method of isolating the poor through the median per capita income. According to this principle, the poverty line is defined as a significant lag of disposable income from the average value recorded in a particular community. This means that in practice, the official poverty line is calculated as a certain proportion of the median income, and not as the cost of the minimum consumption basket, formed taking into account the standards established by the state.

In developed capitalist countries (USA, Great Britain, Germany) the poverty line corresponds to 40% of the median income; in countries with a lower standard of living (Finland, Italy, Greece, Spain) - 50%, and in such European countries as Ireland and Portugal - 60% of the median. As we can see, the ideas about the necessary and sufficient subsistence allowance for the majority of the research participants strikingly coincide with the “median” income, and the poverty line is defined precisely as 60% of this value. In Moscow, which is noticeably different from the rest of Russia in terms of welfare, this line is at the level of 50% of the median income, which fully corresponds to the principle of assessing the degree of need adopted as a basis in many countries of the world that are at a similar level of development. The poverty line correlates not with static indicators characterizing abstract minimum needs, but with the average standard of living achieved in a particular country or real community.

Russia is a huge territorial settlement area with at different levels socio-economic development, depending on the region of residence. Substantial interregional and settlement income differentiation is a fact of everyday life, which makes it difficult to assess the situation on the basis of averaged indicators. If in the capital regions the average per capita income is at the level of 8,000 rubles, then the inhabitants of villages on average have no more than 2,800 rubles, residents of small towns - 3,500 rubles, residents of large regional centers - 5,000 rubles. per family member monthly. Traditionally, the regions with the poorest income levels include the South, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Earth Region, and the Volga Region, where the average level of income provision of the population barely reaches 3000 rubles per month in the self-esteem of their residents. In Siberia and the Far East, in addition to the higher average incomes of the population (justified by the harsh living conditions), there is a relatively large polarization and huge, in comparison with the European part of Russia, gaps in the standard of living, that is, a greater proportion of both the poor and the wealthy. social groups to the detriment of the average.

Proceeding from the fact that the differentiation of income distributions in different types of Russian settlements is quite significant, and the structure of needs and the cost of living varies, more accurate and reliable results on the prevalence of poverty in Russia can be obtained only by correlating the per capita income of the population with the regional (or settlement) level. median income. Then, despite the objective differences in the quantitative indicators of per capita income among residents of different regions and settlements, a unified indicator of real poverty appears, reflecting the deviation from the average living standard that exists in a given community at a given period of time.

How is the interregional differentiation of incomes and living standards reflected in the perceptions of Russians from different types of settlements about the required subsistence minimum and the poverty line?

Figure 13

Representations of residents of various types of settlements about the size of the subsistence minimum and the poverty line (in rubles)

As can be seen from Figure 13, opinions about the subsistence level, as well as about the poverty line, vary greatly by type of settlement. What for a Muscovite means being in poverty is a living wage for residents of villages and small towns (however, one should not forget that the natural component of resource provision in rural areas is incomparably higher than in cities, which also affects their ideas about the monetary component. poverty and living wage lines). On the other hand, the poverty line goes down in direct proportion to the size of the settlement.

How exactly do the respondents' ideas about the subsistence minimum and the poverty line correlate with the real material security of the inhabitants of those types of settlements in which they live?

Table 3

Distribution of residents of various types of settlements in accordance with the level of declared per capita income, in%

Per capita income

Moscow and St. Petersburg

Big cities

Small towns

General population

Up to 1,500 rubles per month

1501 - 2000 rubles

2001 - 3000 rubles

3001 - 4000 rubles

4001 - 5000 rubles

5001 - 6000 rubles

6001 - 8000 rubles

8001 - 10000 rubles

Over 10,000 rubles

The data in Table 3 clearly demonstrate that, in accordance with the perceptions of Russians about the poverty line, we have about 6% -8% of the poor in large cities of Russia (that is, their incomes are at the level of up to 3000 rubles in the capitals and up to 2000 rubles in other large cities. cities, which respondents from these regions assessed as a “poverty line”). In small towns and in rural areas, 14% -16% of their population turned out to be below the typical for the inhabitants of these settlements about the poverty line (i.e., their incomes were below 2,000 rubles and 1,500 rubles, respectively). It follows from this that, when talking about the poverty line, residents of various Russian settlements mean a pronounced inability to maintain a typical of this type settlements living standards due to lack of income.

If we take into account the inadequacy of per capita income to the level of the subsistence minimum, that is, real poverty, which Russians themselves avoid to call being below the poverty line, then every fourth resident of Moscow and St. a resident of large and every second resident of small Russian cities, as well as 65% of rural residents.

How many of the above factors manifest themselves in terms of the persistence of social inequalities will be discussed in subsequent sections of the report. For now, we note that the analysis of the specifics of the composition and lifestyle of the least prosperous Russians allows us to assert that in the near future poverty in Russian society will expand, but the depth of poverty of different groups will be different. Moreover, for half of them, accounting for about a fifth of the population, poverty will be accompanied by marginalization and lumpenization, while for the other half the problem will be limited to “only” ordinary poverty. And this means that in relation to these categories of the poor, and, especially, children from these families (and more than a quarter of all minor children live in them), different methods of assistance should be developed from the state (both federal and local) social policy.

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