Outsiders can legitimately identify real welfare thresholds in another society.

Evidence

“It is entirely defensible for an external observer to judge that there is a qualitative difference in welfare at one or more critical levels [poverty lines] in a specific society.” (Ravallion 2016, 191-92) 8. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 559

Categorization

• QUESTION: How far does this license external judgment before it becomes defining poverty to suit the observer’s metrics?
• XREF: Speaks back to development-economics debates over the $1-a-day line and to the reader’s notes on ‘fair treatment’ surveys that can’t cleanly measure racial attitudes.