Townsend was dedicated to studying "very carefully the life of the poorest and most handicapped members of society". He applied this consistently outside academia as well as within it. During the 1960s, Townsend served as a member on the Council for Training in Social Work's Research Committee. The Committee was chaired by Sir Charles Morris. Townsend was co-founder of the Child PovertyAction Group in 1965, was its chair for 20 years and Life President from 1989. He also co-founded the Disability Alliance in response to the Thalidomide scandal, and chaired it for 25 years.
Work
Definition of relative poverty
''"Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the type of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and the amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved in the societies to which they belong. Their resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average family that they are in effect excluded from the ordinary living patterns, customs, and activities."
Townsend inefficiency
Townsend inefficiency is a possible property of monetary exchange. Rather than evaluating the utility he generated in production, one of the parties is evaluating the value of the money he gets in the transaction. In other words, a worker may only be looking at his paycheck instead of the amount of labour he promises to perform to get that paycheck. This sets up an inefficiency in the monetary exchange.
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