  A second charge levelled by Sen is that ‘a concentration on just the minimum requirements may lead to a softening of the opposition to inequality in general’ (Sen 1984, 515). This draws attention to the fact that needs define a standard of sufficiency (see Frankfurt 2015) and cannot be appealed to directly to determine how any available surplus resources above that line should be allocated. However the point should not be overstated. In today’s world, reducing inequality by redistribution from rich to poor may be a necessary precondition for meeting everyone’s basic needs. Moreover if we widen the focus to consider needs that arise in particular societies, we will often find that needs and inequality interact, since what is essential for a minimally decent life will depend in part on the general standard of living in the society in question. It is for this reason that poverty is often defined in relative terms, as having an income below a certain percentage of the social median.