Kevin Beadle
Mr. Haskell
World History
27 February 2006
Poverty
Poverty is a big problem in the world. Many countries are suffering from this dilemma. Poverty is also growing more and more each year. There are many causes and effects of poverty around the world.
Most underdeveloped economies lead to poverty which many countries are suffering from the past and today. The causes of poverty include lack of available resources such as clothing and food. Another cause is from underdeveloped economies. Underdeveloped economies lack currency to support people who need their daily resources.
The word poverty literally means poor and insecurity. The main reason poverty occurs is because there is no way they can support their country or their people. There are also many ways to eliminate poverty. This includes providing funds for the need, making new shelter so they can be provided with their needs such as clothing and food.
This graph shows how much of the people in different regions of the world are living in poverty. There are about three hundred million African Americans living in poverty. That is about half of the countries population. The reason why poverty is so much in Africa is because most African nations suffer from military dictatorships, corruption, civil unrest and war, and underdevelopment.
There are many reasons why the Poverty rate has become so large. One reason to poverty is that it is due to less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. Most countries feel that developing weapons to protect their country should be their primary objective before supporting the people. The cost of developing an army and developing weapons is about sixty billion dollars. Now you may see why countries may be in debt.
The industrial revolution was an event in history that contributed to poverty. This was a time when there were advances in clothing, shelter and machines. Machines made the once backbreaking work easier for man to do. Machines also helped mass produce items so more could have the products that would help make their life easier. Farm machinery helped so more produce could be grown and harvested. The improvements with transportation helped ship products and move people around. All these things and more have was suppose to help make our lives easier, healthier and more comfortable, which can lead to a longer life. What it really lead to were low wages and a hard life.
Modern advances are a good thing but there can also be drawbacks. Too much of a good thing also has consequences. Overpopulation brings overcrowded cities, poverty, resource shortages, and pollution. We have to be aware of the effects of advances like these brings so we can try to prevent problems such as depleting our resources or destroying our water and air which leads to poverty.
The world can be divided into two groups. They would be the developed and developing countries. The developed countries such as the US, Canada and Japan all have strong governments, economies, resources and money to buy the goods that they need. In these countries the population is high but they are able to support their people. They have their poor but it is a very small percentage and they have programs like welfare and shelters to help them. They do not see how poverty is effecting them because they have what they need like food, energy, fresh water and natural resources
An individual’s characteristics may be a reason for poverty. These include the amount of education, skill, experience, intelligence. Other factors of an individual are their health, handicaps, age. work orientation, time horizon, and their culture of poverty.
Being discriminate, together with race, sex, may also influence on Poverty.
Poverty is also defined as “the state of being poor or lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts. More children live in poverty in the United States than in any other developed country. Generally, poverty is blamed either on the individual or the system. Several reasons such as intelligence, poverty culture, family life and the system of capitalism explains why poverty exists in the U.S. Intelligence has been labeled as one of the factors of poverty in the U.S. because of research done by sociologist, Richard Herrnstein, who “argued that the poor have a lower intellectual capability than the non-poor, and that they marry other people of low intelligence, in which produces children of low intellectual capacity.” Egendorf, pg. 13.
Although, there is a lot of evidence disprove this finding many people be likely to think of the poor as lacking the knowledge to get and obtain a well paying job. This is the reason why people of poor economic background receive fewer opportunities in the work force. Poverty culture gives explanation for the existence of poverty through “the continual reinforcement of the cycle of poverty” Lens, pg. 12, adapted by children of poor families. Poverty culture contains unproductive actions such as a lack of education, teenage pregnancy, drug use, a lack of trust in the authorities and a pessimistic attitude. It has been argued that the “negative orientation toward life and work makes them ill-equipped to enter the societal mainstream.” Lens, pg. 36. Family life, like intelligence and poverty culture, places blame of poverty on an individual. It has been time after time set up that family instability is most common among the poor than in any other economic class. Because there is a lack of support in poor families, individuals raised in these families are most likely to fail.
The system of capitalism is one of the few things that place the blame on society for the existence of poverty. “Socialist, Michael Harrington argued the inadequate programs and misdirected priorities hampered efforts to solve this far from intractable problem.” Egendorf, pg. 23. Because the poor have no positive control in society and lack political support, they have no income of power to break the continuing cycle of poverty. The United States tried to repair the poverty problem in several ways. Through social programs such as welfare and social security, the poor are given a minimal amount of money in order to aid their existence.
The “Trickle Down” approach was installed by the Reagan-Bush Republican administrators with in which that in giving the upper-class a tax cut, the rich would have more money to force into the economy which would eventually reach the lower classes. The Interventionist Approach was an action taken by the federal government, which required educating and employing the poor in order to help them get a job career. Unfortunately, these social programs have not been able to keep up with the inflation rates and the constant desire of material goods by the poor created by the need to fit in with the middle and upper classes. The international market with many other countries is simulating the American capitalistic system. By “reducing social benefits towards the poor and unemployed and minimizing government efforts to assure job security” Egendorf, pg. 19, poverty is being given the opportunity to decrease globally. Without an international plan that places stress on building “successful families, competent schools and positive communities in which good jobs exist to meet the needs of families worldwide” Lens, pg. 22, the problem of poverty will continue to grow.
Poverty is a matter that is affecting the whole world with its crowded cities, food shortages in the undeveloped nations, natural resource shortages in the developed countries of the United States, South Africa, and Latin America and poverty in all of the worlds countries, are more of a polluted world that is destroying the worlds atmosphere. If we are able to poverty under control, the earth and all its inhabitants will be much happier. For the developed countries this would mean less worries about pollution, and depleting resources. A smaller poverty percentage means there won’t be as much worry for depreciating the problem. We will still need to develop more efficient and cleaner ways of living but a smaller population will buy us more time to do so. For the developing countries, starvation can be under control and they might be able to get there economies going to a point that they could be contributors to the world.
Due to the individual and public influence that is placed on poverty, the amount of poor people in the world has grown constantly. A unified plan should be fixed, otherwise, poverty will continue to grow and create a serious threat to our general welfare. By realizing that the upper classes of the world has the power to put an end to poverty almost immediately by a combination of educational jump start programs and a guaranteed annual income, a system ought to be devised to end poverty once and for all.
Works Cited
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