Poverty and Its Effects on Society Essay

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Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence of Social Problem of Poverty

In delineation, poverty is the state of affairs in which an individual either owing to insufficient income or ill-advised expenditures, does not sustain a standard of living sufficiently enough to make provisions for his or her physical and psychological efficacy and to facilitate them and their natural children to function, more often than not to the standards of society (Sharma, 1997). In accordance to Ball and Tepperman (2016), social inequalities can be delineated as the uneven accessibility to rewards or prospects for individuals within a group or groups in a societal context. They are existent in any society or community when individuals have dissimilar amounts of income, affluence and social power. Canada is considered to be in the middle with respect to rankings for social inequality (Tepperman and Curtis, 2003). Poverty has always been one of the most severe social problems not only in the United States but also in the world, particularly poverty being more severe in other nations. In the present day society, statistics indicate that one out of eight citizens in America is experiencing poverty. From a quantitative perspective, approximately 10.7 percent of the population in the world are below the poverty line and live on less than $1.90 a day. This figure is equivalent to 767 million people across the globe. From a qualitative perspective, 50 percent of the extreme poor subsist in Sub-Saharan Africa. A huge majority of the internationally poor subsist in rural areas and have poor education, and are largely employed in the agricultural sector (UNESCO, 2017).

From a qualitative perspective, poverty is delineated as either being absolute or relative. On one hand, absolute poverty takes a metric in association with the amount of money or funds necessitated to meet basic needs, for instance, shelter, food, and clothing. This notion does not take into consideration the extensive quality of life issues or the general level of inequality within the society. Evidence shows that more than 50 percent of the populaces residing in low income nations are not able to afford the necessities that are basic and therefore are deemed to be in absolute poverty. On the other hand, relative poverty delineates poverty with regard to the economic status of other individuals within the society. This is in the sense that individuals are deemed to be poor if they are presently living below the prevailing standards of living in a particular societal context and framework. Relative poverty can be evidenced across the world through inequities in the societal order.

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For instance, within the workplace, despite the fact that there is a set income, there are people who earn at a significantly lower income level (UNESCO, 2017).

Causes or Social Roots of Poverty

One of the key causes of poverty is discrimination and social inequality. In accordance to the United Nations Social Policy and Development Division, inequalities with regard to the distribution of income and accessibility to productive resources, prospects, basic social services, marketplaces, as well as basic information have been progressively increasing across the globe, more often than not giving rise to and aggravating poverty. In particular, these inequalities emanate from the conviction that a number of individuals are worth less in comparison to others, on the basis of their religion, gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation as well as others. This discrimination brings about a two-tier social order where individuals experiencing prejudice fail to enjoy the similar opportunities that those who are privileged have. The consequences of these social inequalities is that the discriminated individuals end up living below the poverty line (Dabla-Norris et al., 2015). Another root cause for poverty takes into account poor education. Having low levels of education and talents gives rise to a limitation to the people’s capability to gain access to proper jobs in order to grow and develop themselves and totally participate in the society. This is also linked to having an education system that is faulty within the social order. This not only leads to lack of technical skills but at the same time also leads to unemployment. Moreover, another shortcoming encompasses the high cost of education incurred by the general public as well as lack of scholarships and funds (Sharma, 1997).

Another cause of poverty encompasses high growth of population. It is imperative to note that rapid population growth is one of the most significant factors that reduce the flow of the benefits that are meant to help poor people grow. Basically, a population that grows faster implies a decreased rate of the improvement in the standards of living. In addition, an increase in population adversely affects the battling of poverty owing to its influence on the concentration of land within the rural expanses as well as labor markets at large. High growth rates of population contribute to the contemporary austere pressure on land in numerous regions and therefore worsening the aspect of landlessness, all of which works against the best interests of the poor. Fast paced population growth as a result gives rise to a larger growth in.....

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