Poverty is an issue for every country and society. According to the report of the United Nations, over one billion people live from hand to mouth. Every country tries to solve the problems connected with the poverty. In my opinion, the reason for poverty is corruption which is widespread in many countries. In actual fact, only developed countries, where level of corruption is low, successfully cope with poverty.
His first premise is, death and suffering due to starvation and malnutrition are very bad. Famine is prominent in many third world countries, and as people living on the same planet it is horrible to know that those less fortunate do not have the amount of food needed to survive. This is a fact, not an argument. Moving on to the second premise which states, if we can prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing something of equal moral importance then we ought to do it. I previously stated death and suffering from malnutrition are bad, therefore if we can prevent famine without harming ourselves we ought to do it.
In society today poverty is measured to ways either absolute poverty, or relative poverty. Lets start with Absolute poverty, Absolute poverty measures the number of people living below a certain income threshold or the number of households unable to afford certain basic goods and services like food water and shelter. This is the level of poverty you most likely picture when you hear the word poverty. Usually commercials of foreign children, with bloated bellies who suffer from malnutrition and lack of clean water. Absolut poverty is mostly prevalent in developing countries like India or Haiti, but the United States is not immune from it.
The poorest nations on Earth are usually categorised by the term LDC, meaning ‘Least Developed Country.’ These low levels of development make it harder for the county to develop any further. Sierra Leone is an example of an LDC, and is at the bottom of the UN’s league for human development. Sierra Leone has a high level of dependency on its raw materials for income, Diamonds and Iron ore are highly sought after and the main consumers of these products are the industrialising and high level consumption nations such as China and the U.S. The issue is that these products are mined and manufactured by foreign companies. If the LEDC had the high enough levels of development it could educate it population and these profit providing process could be taxed and boost the economy of the LDC to allow such infrastructure to grow.
Violence, obesity, children’s education, life expectancy, mental illness, teen births, trust- all are major problems for societies across the globe, and according to Wilkinson and Pickett, can be attributed to inequality. In their examination of developed countries, they found that inequality, rather than average income, is a far better indicator of wellbeing. Furthermore, the authors posited that nearly all problems that are more prevalent at the bottom of social hierarchies (many are aforementioned) are more common in unequal societies. They suggest that despite a nation’s apparent affluence, wealthy yet unequal nations are nonetheless “social failures” (18). Wilkinson and Pickett explore two of the most common assumptions about the social gradient that shows people at the bottom of social hierarchies suffer more problems- circumstances and individual tendencies.
According surveys, I think high unemployment rate and low employment rate, mental illness and domestic violence can cause people becoming homeless in America. Poverty is closely linked to homeless. Poverty due to high employment rate and low employment rate can trap individuals and can lead to homelessness. Although the United States is recovering from the worst financial crisis in 2008 since the Great Depression, there are still many homeless people suffering from the crisis. Many homeless people who have jobs and can't avoid homelessness, escaping homelessness is virtually impossible for those without a job.
Prior to Iris Young’s “Global Challenges” issues were viewed from a perspective which she calls the Liability Model. The Liability Model is based on viewing situations from a traditional legal perspective. A widely accepted view was that the scope of obligations of justice was defined by membership in a common political community. In “The Law of Peoples” Rawls says that principles of justice as fairness mutually oblige member of distinct societies to one another, yet do not apply to the moral relationships among people between societies across the globe. Charles Bietz challenged this belief in his work”Political Theory and International Relations” by arguing that there exists an international society even in the absence of a comprehensive political constitution to regulate it (Young 162).
So what causes this worldwide dilemma? Primary factors that lead to poverty comprises of overpopulation, lack of knowledge and competence, unemployment and high standards of living. These are not all the causes but these are some of the leading causes. One of the lead causes of poverty is overpopulation. A certain place can only cater a certain amount of people.
However, after four decades of aid receiving, poverty is still the biggest challenge in Africa. Data show that overall foreign aid has failed not only to promote economic growth but also to improve the lives of the people on the continent. As such, poverty has even worsened around the African continent. The World Bank (2008) reports that the number of poor in Africa has nearly doubled, increasing from 200 million in 1981 to 390 in 2005 despite massive foreign fund inflows. Furthermore, Dambisa Moyo (2009) in her much acclaimed book Dead Aid goes further by highlighting the failure of aid in Africa.
Upon these thoughts I began to ask myself the question is it the community's fault and is the community around us responsible for helping these people get back on their feet and restoring their life? It is almost impossible to keep track of the homeless population, partly because they are difficult to find and because it isn’t something for a country to be proud, so it isn’t an issue that gets enough attention. Never the less, homeless people do exist and they are found all over the world. Even though India has the largest number, with 70 million homeless people, this is just 10 percent of its population. There are many contributing factors to becoming homeless.