Subsistence Level and Class Analysis

In 2016 the Hungarian Central Statistical Office announced that after several decades it would stop calculating and publishing the minimum subsistence values. In my paper I argue that it is important to have up to date information about the minimum values and that they are also of great importance from the viewpoint of social theory. First, I show that the subsistence minimum indicator is an important tool for investigating poverty, then I examine two theoretical contexts where the minimum values play an important role, and finally I argue that by monitoring the minimum subsistence level we can also get important information about the transformation of social structure.