the greater variation in the data at higher levels of mean living standards can also be seen to reflect greater variation in the social subjectivity of poverty lines at higher levels of development indeed the political nature by which societies choose to set their national lines may become more salient at higher levels of economic and institutional development a tendency for higher income countries to politically decide to choose a higher poverty line than what might otherwise be the most socially salient poverty line would bias upward the regressions on which ravallion and chens income elasticity of the poverty line is based citing fuchs he reminds us that it is desirable for the setting of the poverty line to be recognised as a national value judgementarrived at through the normal political process