Perceptions of pain, harm and suffering vary across cultures. Some rich populations have a thing for cold showers or consider not using warm water as a way of saving energy rather than a characteristic of absolute poverty.
Others purposely eat less than the recommended 2000 calories per day because they believe it is healthier for their bodies or souls. And some people absolutely don’t mind living in rooms crowded with family members or friends without thinking it’s a problem. End of line: absolute poverty is challenged by different conceptions of what basic needs are. From this angle, consensus on what absolute poverty is seems impossible.
Definition of absolute poverty - by instinct
If the definition of poverty showed that the phenomenon is not only a biological problem but in essence a context-bound one depending on the ability to fully participate in a society, several academics such as the famous Amartya Sen (1981) have always been looking for an “irreducible core of absolute deprivation”, one unquestionably obvious when observing a human being suffering from hunger, or any “visible hardship”.
Indeed, no matter what culture we’re talking about, we are all able to identify poverty, destitution and suffering by instinct. Hence we can start seeing how absolute and relative poverty are different. The true interest of the debate is in fact to define what a people’s needs are (as opposed to what they want), and whether they are uniform across the globe. - See more at: http://www.poverties.org/absolute-poverty.html#sthash.GHzUqTvk.dpuf