Problems of Poverty

In the richest country in Europe, Hobson writes, only three people in ten can live in decent comfort. An average wage may look tolerable—until sickness, unemployment, or the loss of a breadwinner sends a household toward penury.

In late nineteenth-century Britain, J. A. Hobson begins with a deceptively simple question: who are the poor? To answer it, he measures the nation’s wealth and asks how it is divided, then looks beneath working-class averages to families whose incomes and security differ sharply. Figures gathered in East London bring the inquiry down to actual lives: Charles Booth’s study finds 316,000 people in the district living in families earning less than 21 shillings a week. If poverty is not captured by a single average, where does it begin—and how many are already there?

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