It is still common to hear of a division between absolute and relative poverty. But poverty is always both relative and absolute. In a monetized economy, an individual’s relative lack of income can result in absolute deprivation. ($1.90, whatever it is worth in sub-Saharan Africa, can’t purchase three meals in most other parts of the world.) This is not reflected by the World Bank’s poverty line, one reason why its numbers are so low. In 2016, the economist Robert Allen proposed in an independent report that the World Bank instead measure poverty based on the resources needed to purchase basic necessities of subsistence. In theory, this would make the Bank once again recognize poor people in Thailand, Turkey, and Romania—countries where, according to the $1.90 line, poverty has been entirely banished.