Exercise 3 solution

All sums checked in Python.

(a) 0.6 x 24,000 = 14,400. The relative poverty line is 14,400.
(b) Before: the household on 16,000 is above 14,400, so it is not below the line. After the median rises to 30,000, the line becomes 0.6 x 30,000 = 18,000, and 16,000 is below it. So it is not below the line before, and is below it after.
(c) Its income did not change, so in absolute terms (what it can buy, ignoring prices, which this example does not cover) it is no worse off. In relative terms it has fallen behind, because the society's median rose. The Poverty page describes relative poverty as "socially defined and dependent on social context".

Reading figures: 100,000 of 265,432 characters were read, 37.7 percent; 165,432 characters (62.3 percent) were not. So claims about the Poverty page, particularly any about causes, may be incomplete.