PSY 3123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Old Age Security

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3123
• Professor: Julie Desjardins

Document Summary

Helping the worthy poor: in early years of european settlement in canada, the poor depended almost entirely on their families or on other private individuals for help. Public assistance provided by local governments and charities on an emergency basis only: gradually a social safety net developed. Basic social security programs needed to support family life. Of cially de ned: two basic ways of de ning poverty: Absolute poverty: lacking the minimum basic requirements necessary for physical survival. Another approach considers that poverty is a relative concept, based on social well-being in addition to physical survival: most measures of poverty in canada, such as statistics canada"s low-income cutoffs, are de nitions of relative poverty. A de nition of poverty based on comparing individuals or families to others in the population: in canada, few measures that de ne absolute poverty. Takes into account family size, up to seven members, and community size.