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Decent living of an average family costs 2,273 lei in the city and 1,831 lei in the countryside
The average family made up of two adults and two children who live in the urban environment has a cost of 2,273 lei to cover their decent living and that in the rural environment – 1,831 lei, shows a study of the Institute for the Research of Life Quality (ICCV).
The living necessities for the urban environment means a minimum consumption basket whose value is 2,273 lei for a medium family made up of 2.8 people, namely two adults and two children show the researchers at ICCV. In the rural environment, where a part of the products and services are ensured by the functioning of the household, the value of the minimum basket is 1,831 lei.
The study also shows another level of consumption,the necessary one for the physical survival of the family- the minimum subsistence basket. This has the value of 1,842 lei in the city and 1,600 lei in the countryside.
ICCV says that this is a minimum basket for consumption, while the National Institute for Statistics (INS) estimates that a minimum basket already spent, underlying thus the difference between the two indicators.
‘By the use of the normative method (ICCV) the consumption is considered by specialists as regards the way the people and their families should eat to be healthy depending on the quantity of physical, psychic and intellectual effort undertaken by employees and by children, while the monthly average consumption (INS) reflects what the population spends, sometimes without keeping track of the norms of nutrition and hygiene’ the ICCV says.
The definition of the living minimum has, according to ICCV two aspects. The one connected to consumption habits(food, clothes, footwear, housing, services) tradition: habits, education and professional training as well as the participation of the individual and its family to society. ‘ All these aspects define the minimum for living decently, corresponding to a certain degree of dignity of the individual and its family.From this level of living downwards we can speak about poverty for the individual and its family’. The second aspect is the one connected to the survival of a person, which is defined as a subsistence minimum, that is why the elements of development and social assertin of the person and its family are not included. ‘ From this level downwards we can speak about absolute poverty’ the authors of the study say.
‘ In its everyday life a person needs shelter, food, clothing, footwear, drugs to keep in a god physical and psychical shape. But we can’t forget about another important aspect, that a human being is integrated into society, and for this it needs information ( the press, TV, specialty works, etc.) during the time left after covering the professional activity. Each person or family has a consumption directly connected, not only to the area of the material but the area of the spiritual as well, not to be neglected. Clearly this consumption is tightly connected to a series of factors: income, origin, traditions, habits, level of training, education, health, etc. the social-economic processes and the level of development of that country’ the study says.
According to this minimum basket for decent living includes the necessary of resources for the current consumption (food, clothes, footwear, house, services in minimum quantity and at minimum prices of acquisition)plus expenses for education, professional training which favour the assertion of the person and its social status (cultural service, post, telecommunication) which allow the development and the participation of the individual and its family to the society.
In the minimum basket for decent living was included a quantum of 10% of the final expense for the consumption basket, for a security fund and savings, with a view to covering the various expenses necessary for unpredicted situations of joy (weddings, baptisms) or sorrow ( illness, hospitalisation, death) which appear in the people’s lives’ the study shows.