Final answer:
A fundamental criticism of establishing an absolute measure of poverty is that it's arbitrary and does not account for the complexities of poverty and varies across different societal contexts.
Step-by-step explanation:
A more fundamental criticism of trying to establish an absolute measure of poverty is that it is arbitrary and does not capture the complexities of poverty. This criticism arises because absolute poverty focuses on whether people can afford basic necessities, without considering broader social and economic contexts. In contrast, relative poverty reflects a failure to meet an average standard of living within a society, and subjective poverty is based on an individual's own perception of their situation, which can vary widely across cultures and individual expectations.
The poverty line intended to delimit absolute poverty is somewhat arbitrary, because any threshold is based on a fixed set of criteria, which may not hold up over time or across different societies. In addition, subjective experiences of poverty are hard to quantify and compare. A family living on a few dollars a day in one country may feel they are doing well, while in another country, the same income level would be considered impoverished. Hence, poverty is a complex multi-dimensional issue that cannot be fully grasped by a single measure.