Week 5 Assignment: Defining Poverty

Today Peter, Vi, and I went to phơ restuarant on Nguyển Trãi street. We talked to a well-dressed man eating at the next table. Though indirectly, we were able to get him to answer the two questions Gerard assigned to us.

1. How do they distinguish between being 'poor' and 'not poor'? With this one we'd like to see what sort of objective or subjective criteria they use, for example: having enough food to eat, having access to certain services, having certain possessions, etc.
- He jokingly said that if you're rich, we could buy his dinner for him. With further interigation, we were able to get a real answer from him. As far as an objective view of wealth, the man took a very pragmatic materialist approach. He said there is nothing subjective about economic wealth. However, he said that spiritually, one can be wealthy without material goods. He said that his country may not be rich materially, it is rich in other ways.

2. In the last ten years, has the gap between rich and poor increased or decreased? What specific signs have led them to this decision? Do they think that the current gap is too little, about right, too large? What will happen to the gap in the next ten years?
- The man said that in the last 5 years, the price of his phơ has doubled. He expects it to increase at a steady rate into the future. He said the gap between the rich and the poor will close for business owners and Vietnam will be continually better off. I felt that if I had asked him about the peasantry, he would have responded that they were a negative backwards force in the Vietnamese economy.

Paraphrased Transcript

Subjective:
There is nothing subjective about being poor; you are either able to buy what you want or you aren't. I believe most Vietnamese are rich with life and happiness. Satisfied with simplicity.
Objective:
If you are not poor, you can buy my food, haha. The poor people that I have seen are more mobile, walking around selling hoa qua or do choi instead of setting up a shop like my family's shop here.

10 Years yonder:
10 years ago we were selling pho for half of what we sell it now (15,000 today). Thanh xuan is still poorer than most areas in Ha Noi, like pho co, where they sell pho for 20,000. 10 years from now, I think prices around Ha Noi will be more similar ,around 50,000, but there will be more competition in the area. We will probably have to renovate our shop to compete with the newer establishments. I think business owners like my family will be better off and the Vietnamese people will be more wealthy in general.