A need is something which is needed for an organisms survival. Needs are different from desires. For a desire, a lack of it results in a direct adverse result: a loss or a malfunction. A need on the other hand is the opposite of desire. A need needs result in a desire.
In this world, all people live under one basic need: the shelter over their heads. Every day, people wake up to face a new day with no place to stay and no way to survive. This is the time where they have to think about what they need to do so as to survive. The top of the list in most people’s mind is food and shelter.
Most people consider two categories of needs: the biological and the economic needs. The category of needs which is biologically based are provided by the food supply and the shelter provided by society. It follows that those people who have greater biological needs are placed at the top of the economic pyramid. Those who have fewer of these necessities are placed at the bottom of the pyramid.
A person who has less of the basic necessities of life does not necessarily have less of a good sense of self-worth. His self-worth could simply be determined by his ability to provide a safe and secure shelter for himself and his family. The esteem needs are subjective. Self esteem needs are related to the physiological needs for food, clothing, safety and shelter. When a person’s physiological needs are satisfied, he will feel better about himself.
The poverty line is a point at which some basic needs have been met. The poverty threshold is the point where a person can no longer meet his basic needs. If a person falls below this line, it is called a poverty level. At the extreme end of the poverty line is absolute poverty.
The relative poverty threshold is a standard used by the economists to determine whether or not a country is developing or not. It is basically an economic index that compares a country’s poverty rate against another country. A poor country with a low relative poverty rate is considered to be developing. Conversely, a country that has a very high relative poverty rate is considered to be developing. This relative economic co-efficient scale is also used in international development comparisons. One such index that is often used is the World Development Indicators (WDI).