MINIMUM LIVELIHOOD IN GEORGIA: POLITICAL WEAPONS TO COVER REAL POVERTY

Abstract

This analysis examines the growing disconnect between official subsistence figures in Georgia and the lived economic reality of its citizens. By comparing the current 2003-based methodology with the British "Minimum Income Standard" (MIS), this paper argues that the state’s reliance on a "biological survival" model serves as a political tool to mask deep-seated poverty. The findings suggest that a transition to modern, social-inclusion-based metrics would likely reveal a poverty rate of 60%, tripling current official estimates.