Before entering fully into the clarification of the meaning of the term basket, it is necessary to know its etymological origin. In this case, we can highlight that this is what the two words that shape it have:
-Canasta derives from Latin, specifically from “canistrum”, which can be translated as “basket”. That word that, in turn, comes from the Greek “kanastron”, which also means “basket”.
-Basic, on the other hand, has Greek roots. It can be translated as “fundamental” and is the result of the sum of two clearly differentiated components: “basis”, which is equivalent to “support”, and the suffix “-ico”, which is used to indicate “relative to”.
The idea of the basic basket is used in the field of economics to name a set of products and services that are considered essential for the subsistence and well-being of the members of a family. Food, health, education and culture are elements included in the basic food basket.
In general, the basic basket is made with the objective of estimating the expenditure that a family group must make to satisfy its basic needs. If it is calculated that the basic food basket of a country reaches 2,000 pesos, for example, a family should receive an income of that amount to cover their needs. Otherwise, you will not be able to access essential goods and services.
Sometimes the basic basket is limited to food. In this framework we speak of the basic food basket or basic food basket, a group of products that are considered minimum to satisfy the nutritional needs of an adult individual.
According to DigoPaul, the basic food basket is also known as CBA or as basic family basket (CFB) and it is considered that it should be made up of products such as milk, eggs, meat, cereals, vegetables, fruits, legumes and other items such as salt or coffee.
The person who does not receive the necessary income to access the basic food basket is below the indigence line: that is, they are destitute. These subjects do not have the financial resources to buy the food they need to live. There are those who can access the basic food basket but, in any case, they are poor.
In the time of crisis that has been experienced a few years ago around the world, many have been the citizens who have not been able to even have the basic food basket at home because they were without work or lost their assets. Faced with this situation, they had to not only ask the state for help, but many others had to rely on soup kitchens to at least put something in their mouths on a daily basis. What’s more, some did not even hesitate to rummage through the garbage in supermarkets to eat.
It should be noted that the concepts of basic food basket and basic food basket are used for statistical purposes. These statistics, in turn, can be used to design public policies. It must be taken into account that, as indicators, they do not allow us to know exactly how people live.
