The Germans devised the Hartz IV system to limit benefits to a subsistence level of living.

FORBES: Why Obama Cannot Match Germany's Jobs Miracle

Most remained mired in subsistence level agriculture until suddenly advances in the Anglosphere catapulted living standards forward.

FORBES: Forget Multiculturalism: Restore The Anglo-Saxon Philosophy Of Liberty

It also aims to help them increase their yields in order to become self-sufficient and grow beyond subsistence level.

FORBES: Three Pan-American Solutions That Will Address Healthcare, Climate Change And Financial Inclusion

Most Koreans lived by subsistence level agriculture enjoying meager material goods.

FORBES: North Korea's Plight Proves the Power of Markets

Since independence in 1976, per capita output in this Indian Ocean archipelago has expanded to roughly seven times the pre-independence, near-subsistence level, moving the island into the upper-middle income group of countries.

FORBES: Seychelles

Two and a half million people died of Aids last year in Africa, you've got countries where people are living way below subsistence level, population levels are increasing and yet life expectancy is low.

BBC: News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | Tony Blair interview

This is income from almost all sources (including tax-exempt bonds, for example), reduced by income taxes and by an allowance for subsistence-level living.

FORBES: Paying for College: Five Rules to Protect Your Retirement

For 14 brutal years, Sudan's current civil war (the first lasted 17 years) has swung back and forth, killing perhaps 1.3m people by bullets, landmines, famine and disease, and reducing the lives of millions in the south an area bigger than France to a level barely above subsistence.

ECONOMIST: War and paper peace in Sudan

Overall travel and subsistence costs were more than 30% below the level incurred by the former Welsh Development Agency.

BBC: Civil servants' ?750k cards bill