“Poverty” has been defined as the inability of an individual or a family to command sufficient resources to satisfy basic needs. The workman who, in Adam Smith’s day, could not appear in public wearing a proper linen shirt, was ipso facto poor, not only to Smith but to Amartya Sen who, commenting on Smith’s observation, wrote: “On the space of the capabilities themselves – the direct constituent of the standard of living – escape from poverty has an absolute requirement, to wit, avoidance of this type of shame. Not so much having equal shame as others, but just not being ashamed, absolutely” (Sen 1984, p. 335). Over time, the poverty line needs to be adjusted for changes in the cost of acquiring the basket of basic needs. When the poverty line is adjusted for inflation and only for inflation, the line defines “absolute poverty.”