Absolute poverty lines replaced relative measures because they avoid confronting inequality.

Evidence

However, a meeting with Robert McNamara at the World Bank led Harrington to focus more closely on absolute poverty. Indeed, if poverty lines were not new, the notion of an absolute global threshold was. It was largely promoted by McNamara, since it provided a useful tool to measure poverty globally—as opposed to relative measures—and to monitor progress. Moreover, the idea of a global floor did not imply “alleviating relative inequality” or instituting strong redistributive programs against inequality; it tackled only the most basic needs. — Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas, Welfare for Markets, 328

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to chapter 5’s earlier thread that redefining poverty as a distinct culture justified cash floors over redistributive policy. — connects to: The dollar-a-day standard reduced poverty to market consumption capacity. — Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas, Welfare for Markets: A Global History…, 337; Structural adjustment reframed African poverty as a domestic, not global-trade, problem. — Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora Vargas, Welfare for Markets: A Global History…, 336