Among the numerous and complex issues of our time, the issue of poverty plays a central role because it represents the connection point between post-pandemic distress, the certainty of an uncertain future, and the fluidity of choices that has expressed its disruptive force in politics, or better said, in the inconsistency of voting, especially in the last decade. The main difficulty does not concern the identification of poverty, which has always existed but has intensified since the birth of industrial society, leading to the now structured and unsustainable situation of our days. Instead, it concerns the dimensional complexity of poverty, which, for its contrast, today requires a historically contextualized analysis from a cultural, economic, and social point of view, more so than in the past. Firstly, it is necessary to acknowledge the universally recognized distinction between absolute and relative poverty.
The former is represented by the lack of resources necessary for survival and affects over 5.6 million people in our country, corresponding to 9.7% of the population. This is an unacceptable situation for a modern state, which must take responsibility for it through every possible form of social assistance aimed at guaranteeing “the minimum vital need,” as the most direct expression of collective solidarity. Relative poverty, which has broadened the scope of distress, is characterized by the inability to access goods or services that should normally be within reach of all those living in the same territorial area. It is a form of deprivation that is no less insidious than traditional poverty, as it does not concern income-related aspects of survival but limitations of opportunities perceived by those affected as social inequality.
Certainly, this is a characteristic of more economically advanced societies where the crucial element is the distribution of well-being and priorities lean towards immaterial needs. For this part of the population, which is far from marginal (about eight million individuals according to Istat 2020), it is possible to speak of a definitive overcoming of the conception that considered poverty solely as a matter of inadequate income. The distress that emerged as a result of Covid-19 has given rise, for example, to an educational poverty that mainly affects students whose performance is characterized by poor results due to a lack of interest in a qualified future job perspective. Unfortunately, among European countries, our country appears to be the most difficult to emerge from a disadvantageous condition, as evidenced by the rare cases in which successful individual conditions have emerged from disadvantaged families.
In some respects, it is a real paradox considering that more than other Western democracies, our country has placed the principle of equality at the center of the Constitution (Art. 3), elevating it to an essential condition for human development, and then not providing concrete support for its implementation with every possible resource. A correct examination of the phenomenon of poverty allows us to identify the elements to confront it. First of all, the educational instrument, which is evidenced by the fact that poverty decreases as the level of education increases.
It is upon this premise that all energies must be exerted in order to create social opportunities to bring talent and merit to the surface.