Article 2012 : Penalties of poverty : how does the market penalize the poor ?

The contribution by Frédéric Dalsace, Charles-Edouard Vincent, François Dalens and Jacques Berger then illustrates the obscene phenomenon of ‘double penalty’ in the special number #4 of the magazine FACTS Reports Fighting Poverty, between market and gift.

Summary: for different reasons, the poor population groups of developed countries also suffer from the ‘penalties of poverty’. The truth is that by its nature and without any particular malice on the part of market players, the market penalizes society’s poor by requiring them to pay more per unit of consumption than other households for the same products and services.