The Problem of Poverty Jededia Higgins SOC 402 Professor Wilson June 10, 2008 The Problem of Poverty In modern America, it is not uncommon to observe poverty in everyday life. You may see a man asking for money outside a store, or another person holding a sign on the highway typically asking for money, work, food, or a ride. Most go on with their lives either thinking these people are lazy, or simply pity them and never give it a second thought. What most fail to realize is that poverty is a serious social problem that is both domestic and foreign. There are circumstances which perpetuate poverty and trump the basic rights of the individuals who endure it.
Sociologists explain poverty in a number of different ways. Some sociological explanations of poverty say that the problem is with the attitudes and values of the poor, while other explanations say that the problem is with society and the economy. One explanation of poverty is the culture of poverty, which refers to the attitudes and values that people in poverty have. Poor people think that they can't change their situation and will always be poor, so they tend not to aim high and don’t make sacrifices as they feel that they won't achieve much. They also live for the moment (present gratification).
Rushabh Shah English 1B Essay 1 12/05/2010 There are various definitions of poverty depending on the contest of the situation and the views of the person defining it. Poverty could be defined a lack of goods and services necessary to maintain a minimal adequate standard of living. The definition of the term adequate varies, however, with the general standard of living in a society and with public attitudes toward deprivation. No accepted definition of basic needs exists because poverty is a relative concept. In poorer countries it means living at the brink of subsistence, while in the U.S, few improvised families confront starvation, although many suffer from undernourishment.
Social exclusion is a dynamic process and can be transmitted from one generation to the next although not voluntary. It is due to the fact that some people do not get a fair deal in society because of social differences. Some sociologists have agued that it is a mechanism for poverty. There are two types of poverty. According to Townsend (1979) individuals or families can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the type of diet, participation in the activities that are at least widely encouraged in society.
The flow of the silver trade in the mid 16th through early 18th century was both a blessing and a curse for people of all classes in the regions of Europe, the Americans and Asia. The silver trade provided internal economic and social strife, particularly for those of the lower classes, however, in terms of global interactions, the silver trade provided considerable economic benefits for those who had silver resources and hardships for those countries that did not. Internally, the usage of silver for domestic taxes in Ming China in the 1570s was often an economic hardships for the local people, whether framers, writers, or simply middle class citizens. “The reason grain is cheap despite poor harvests… are due entirely to the scarcity of the silver coin… and tillers of the soil receive lower returns on their labors” (Wang). The authors of a court official in the Ming dynasty, after nearly 20 years of the domestic silver tax, attempts to address the difficulties faced by farmers.
The Economics of the Poverty What is Poverty? Poverty in America is the state of being poor, and one lacks the means of providing material needs or comforts. Unfortunately, I have to say that this is still happening in many parts of the world. Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs. Poverty has been associated, for example, with poor health, low levels of education or skills, an inability or an unwillingness to work.
About 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages. Dictionary.com has described poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. As a group we have concluded that a person is consider in poverty when they cannot afford the basic necessities of life including: food, shelter, drinking water, and clothes.
This poverty has been pursuit due to “free market ideals” which is expressed in imposition of “neoliberal economies policies”. This are policies that have sort certain ways of cutting the taxes on wealthy and it do away with fiscal and business regulations, which shred social safety net and eroding the middle class stability (Andersen & Taylor, 2006). Due to this, the richer get more rich and the poor get poorer and more numerous. Behind the issue of economy performance, there are disparities of social behavior which unacknowledged the critics of US economy system. Changes in family structure have increased the level of poverty in America.
Basically there is 1.4 billion people below the poverty line according to this site in 2005. The way things are headed there will be over three billion people under the poverty level in the world according to this research. II. Meta Search Tools A. Infomine.com B. http://www.urbanpoverty.net./windowsonurbanpoverty/ C. The journal article tells about how poverty is grouped in areas around the United States. Poor people live in poor neighbor hoods so it explains that there is a lot of risk associated with living in these areas.
Jeff Doyle Sundol WRC 1013-11 1 Nov. 2010 Are Poor Americans Actually Poor? The number of Americans in poverty today is rather shocking. There are currently thirty-seven million Americans who are classified as being "in poverty" (Rector 2). Many Americans are classified below the line of poverty, but in retrospect to the rest of the world, Americans seem far from poor. America is considered to be upon the most prominent and successful nations in the world; so, why is over a tenth of our population deemed as "poor" by our government?