You can use poverty to refer to any situation in which there is not enough of something or its quality is poor.
贫乏
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
一百年后,黑人依然生活在物质繁荣的汪洋大海之中的一座孤岛上,那座孤岛贫瘠荒凉。