Poverty
Poverty is the state of being without, often associated with need, hardship and lack of resources across a wide range of circumstance. For some, poverty is a subjective and comparative term; for others, it is moral and evaluative; and for others, scientifically established. The principal uses of the term include
- Descriptions of material need, including deprivation of essential goods and services, multiple deprivation, and patterns of deprivation over time.
- Economic circumstances, describing a lack of wealth (usually understood as capital, money, material goods, or resources especially natural resources). The meaning of "sufficient" varies widely across the different political and economic areas of the world. In the European Union, poverty is also described in terms of "economic distance", or inequality.
- Social relationships, including social exclusion, dependency, and the ability to live what is understood in a society as a "normal" life: for instance, to be capable of raising a healthy family, and especially educating children and participating in society.
A person living in the condition of poverty is said to be poor.
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Discourses on poverty
Poverty is studied by many social, scientific and cultural disciplines.
World poverty
The Copenhagen Declaration describes absolute poverty as "a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information." The World Bank identifies "extreme poverty" as being people who live on less than $1 a day, and "poverty" as less than $2 a day. On that standard, 21% of the world's population was in extreme poverty, and more than half the world's population were poor in 2001 [1].
Poverty may be seen as the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and in this sense entire nation-states are sometimes regarded as poor. To avoid stigma these are usually called developing nations, but this too is considered derogatory by some.
Maps of world poverty can be found at http://www.povertymap.net/. There is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries, this condition results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs (with so-called bidonvilles or favelas) in which poor people are – more or less – restricted to a ghetto.
US cities with a high rate of poverty
Causes of poverty
Poverty has been attributed to
- individual, or "pathological" causes, which see poverty as the result of the behaviour, choices or abilities of the poor;
- familial causes, which attribute poverty to upbringing;
- subcultural causes, which attribute poverty to common patterns of life, learned or shared within a community;
- agency causes, which see poverty as the result of the actions of others, including government and the economy; and
- structural causes, which argue that poverty is the result of the social structure.
Although it is widely thought that poverty and unemployment are a result of laziness, the United States for instance (per capita the wealthiest nation in the world) has millions of what are termed the working poor; that is, persons not on welfare or immediate public assistance plans, yet who fail to rise above the poverty line.
Poverty may also be caused by dumping. Dumping is the expression used to describe one country giving another their unwanted goods whether the other country wants them or not.It is a major cause of poverty for third world countries as it is not encouraging independance and, because many of the produts that are dumped have something wrong with them – i.e they are past their use by date or faulty – many people feel they do more harm than good.
Eliminating poverty
Poverty is often strongly correlated with social problems, such as crime and disease (notably sexually transmitted diseases), sometimes in epidemic form. As a result, many societies respond to poverty by a variety of methods which range from moral persuasion to financial subsidy to physical coercion.
The main responses to poverty are
- Poor Relief, or giving aid direct to poor people. This has been part of the approach of European societies since the middle ages. For example, the relief of poverty was recognised as a legal charitable purpose by the English Statute of Charitable Uses (Statute of Elizabeth) in 1601.
- Responses to individual circumstances. A variety of measures have been taken to change the situation of poor people on an individual basis, including e.g. punishment, education, social work, employment, and workfare.
- Provision for contingencies. Rather than providing for poor people directly, many welfare states have provided for categories of people who are likely to be poor, such as old people or people with disabilities, or circumstances which may impoverish people, like the need for health care.
- Strategic intervention. Many people have argued that poor people can be helped to change their circumstances through focusing on selected, specific measures. Examples have included political participation, urban regeneration and the development of social capital.
- Economic development. The anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank depends heavily on preventing poverty through the promotion of economic growth. It is often argued that "a rising tide lifts all boats", though as critics comment, it can also sink some.
Many societies at various times have tried to eliminate poverty, through numerous measures including education, industrialization, and through forms of social welfare. A true solution has remained elusive.
Debates about poverty
Poverty is a highly political issue. People with right wing views often see it as related to laziness, a lack of family planning or too much interference of government. People with left wing views see it more in terms of social justice and lack of opportunity in education. It is a highly complex issue in which various factors often play a part.
The condition in itself is not always considered negatively, even if this is the prevalent interpretation: some cultural or religious groups consider poverty an ideal condition to live in, a condition necessary in order to reach certain spiritual or intellectual states. Poverty in this sense is understood as the lack of material possessions. For some orders this is equivalent to "voluntary simplicity": Mother Teresa said that the vow "frees us from all material possessions". However the vow of poverty traditionally goes beyond that: the Dominicans "lived a life of voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation of others." (Honorius III, 1217).
There are also several different ways to measure poverty. See income inequality metrics.
Literature
- Frances Fox Piven, Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, Vintage Books 1993
- Jean Swanson, Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion, 2001
External links
- Poverty –
The Development Gateway community portal on Poverty is a comprehensive collection of articles, reports, data, statistics, projects and other resources.
PovertyNet from The World Bank Group provides an introduction to key issues as well as in-depth information on poverty measurement, monitoring, analysis, and on poverty reduction strategies for researchers and practitioners.
The Center for Global Development is a Washington, D.C. policy center pursuing research-based, actionable ideas for the fight against global poverty.
- Canada's poor more likely to survive cancer
- LookSmart – Poverty Issues directory category
- Open Directory Project – Poverty Issues directory category
- Yahoo! – Poverty Issues and Causes directory category
Categories: Economics | Socioeconomics | Social justice | Development