Slobodenyuk E.D. Poverty and low income in the context of Russian everyday life. In: Russian society and challenges of the time. Book Eight ...

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to two low-income groups of Russian society—the poor and the low-income. It examines the lives of these people and how their subjective perceptions of life changed from 2013 to 2024. The chapter analyzes not only the poor (with incomes below the subsistence level), who have been the focus of increased government attention in recent years, but also representatives of the immediate periphery of this group, with incomes no higher than 1.5 times the subsistence level—the low-income. This group of Russian society has long been neglected, despite the fact that it is precisely these members, with a standard of living and income quite similar to that of poor Russians, who swell the ranks of the poor during difficult socioeconomic times. The chapter examines in detail how the property security of representatives of both groups changed, how they perceived changes in their lives and property security, in particular, what life goals they set for themselves and how successfully they achieved them, how they perceive the inequalities existing in Russia and the causes of poverty, what difficulties in life they face with. The analysis yielded the following results. First, it was shown that the number of poor people decreased, while the number of low-income people remained virtually unchanged, which is a positive sign for the period under review. Second, both groups demonstrated increased satisfaction with various aspects of their lives, but the poor experienced a more rapid increase. Consequently, a convergence of the groups was observed: the poor and low-income people began to perceive their lives (and various aspects of them) in similar ways. Third, it was shown that the poor and low-income people set similar life goals and achieved similar successes (with one exception), which again testified to the similarity between the groups. For the most part, both groups were able to create happy families, acquire their own living space and reliable friends, and live honestly; however, most of them were not successful in other respects. Fourth, it was shown that the number of subjectively poor people also decreased during these years. Fifth, it was noted that a number of problems for the poor and low-income people remain unresolved. The former had problems with home ownership, both groups lacked the ability to improve their financial situation through their own efforts. Although many poor and low-income individuals would like to become rich, earn a good income, and start their own business, many no longer believe they can achieve this. Sixth, the internal structure of the poor group is demonstrated, formed based on similarities in the difficulties they experience in life. It includes three subgroups: 1) fairly well-off Russians with current income difficulties, usually caused by the dependent burden of children; 2) the "classic" poor, represented primarily by either families with children but already experiencing burnout due to a chronic lack of time and the inability to independently resolve accumulating problems, or by the elderly with poor health and inadequate medical care due to the lack of necessary infrastructure; and 3) the marginalized poor, whose situation is determined either by the very low quality of their human capital or by the bad habits of a family member. Seventh, it has been shown that, although marginalization characterizes a minority of the poor, in the minds of the general population, poverty is increasingly perceived as a consequence of the poor themselves, rather than the influence of structural factors. However, today only one in three Russians (including those among the poor) cites this commitment as the reason for the poverty of their acquaintances, and it is impossible to talk about the formation of a culture of poverty as a characteristic feature of this group as a whole.