ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in detail patterns of child and elder poverty in 14 rich nations in the 1990s. Members of modem societies use a wide range of goods and services to affect their sense of social identity and their participation in activities and social relations. Poverty as social exclusion directs our attention not so much to the amount of goods and services individuals can consume, but to the necessity for particular levels of consumption in order to be a fully participating member of society. The social logic of a poverty line would suggest that we should have more local poverty lines. The child poverty rate of the United Kingdom is dramatically different from that of the northern part of the continent - over 3 times as high. Thus the poverty rate of American children is over 4 times as high as that of children in northern Europe.
