INTRODUCTION:
Growing up in an upper-middle class home in Canada, one might assume that my perspective on the definition of poverty would be very superficial and disconnected with reality such as poverty being the inability to afford opulence. However, being born in and raised with extended family living in harrowing conditions in third-world Pakistan has provided me a very unique perspective on what it means to be “poor”. Poverty to me, is boiling water before bathing for the fear of ailment. Poverty is the heart clenching dread of bills, the darkness of a blackout, the cries of family over minimal inheritance. Poverty is a mother in drags clenching to her naked newborn on the street and children begging for a half-eaten cone of ice cream. Poverty to me is frightening and life threatening.
My definition of poverty, though severe, is an accumulation of my experiences. Unsurprisingly, in a first world country such as Canada, the definition of poverty is dissimilar to my own. Poverty, as described by the Canadian government in a report titled “Poverty in Canada” can be measured by three factors: low income cut-offs, market basket measure, and low income measure. A family in Canada is placed in the low income bracket according to the low income cut-off; if they invest 20% more of their income than the average Canadian family on necessities including shelter, food, and clothing. Market basket measure indicates a family's ability to purchase a set of goods and services, which
Poverty is a serious issue in Canada needs to be addressed promptly. Poverty is not simply about the lack of money an individual has; it is much more than that. The World Bank Organization defines poverty by stating that, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time”. In Canada, 14.9 percent of Canada’s population has low income as Statistics Canada reports, which is roughly about two million of Canadians in poverty or on the verge of poverty. In addition, according to an UNICEF survey, 13.3 percent of Canadian children live in
Although Canada is a rich country there are still people who live in poverty, “In 2011, the government classified about 4.7 million men, women and children –– almost 15 percent of the Canadian population –– as poor” (Macionis, Janson, Benoit, & Burkowicz, 2017) but Canada calculates its poverty rate by “one popular measure known as the LICO, a family has an income below the low income cut-off of it spends more than 63 percent of its after-tax income on the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, including corrections for different family sizes and the cost of living in particular communities.”
Poverty is an ongoing problem in Canada. Poverty is defined as the inability to obtain the necessities for life . Despite poverty being an ongoing problem, how to properly measure it is disputed among scholars. There are two basic formations for the measurement of poverty: the relative measurement and the absolute measurement. In Canada they are called the low income cut off, or LICO, measurement and the market basement measure, or MBM, measurement. The LICO measurement is individuated to Canada whereas the MBM measurement is a worldwide standard. Of the two the LICO measurement of poverty is most relevant for Canadian politicians. This because a relative measurement allows for policy makers to understand poverty based upon what it means
Duffy and Mandell portray many themes around poverty in their article “poverty in Canada”, but there is one word that really symbolizes the main theme, and
According to Chapter 1 of the book "Poverty In Canada", poverty refers to conditions where people lack resources to attain proper diet, participate in community activities, and the living conditions in the society they live in. Poverty can be absolute where people do not have enough resources to survive, or relative where people are not able to participate in common daily activities. The groups who are most likely to experience poverty in Canada are Aboriginal Canadians, women, unattached adults, people of color, persons with disabilities, and recent immigrants to Canada. The reason many of these groups live in poverty is because they work low-wage occupations. For groups such as, people with disabilities, people receiving social assistance,
Poverty, by definition, means “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support.” (Poverty Definition, n.d.) Although Canada is a prosperous country and holds a position as one of the top 20 richest countries in the world, poverty is still prevalent. The question poverty holds is; does poverty have a positive or negative impact in the Canadian society? Poverty is a significant discussion because it is a complex epidemic that has significant implications for the entire society as it affects thousands of families in Canada. Many Canadian families today face poverty due to the change of socio-economic trends, and/or other factors such as unemployment or low income, lack of education, divorces, drug addictions, and
Poverty is a worldwide crisis affecting not only developing countries but, well developed countries like Canada. Although in Canada poverty is not an prevalent issue it affects families and their life style. The after tax income in 2000 was $45,800, 13 years later the after tax income has raised to $53,000 (Statistic Canada 2015). The raising income has helped diminish poverty present in Canada helping families live a healthy, happy life. With the raising income the poor are being benefited. The lowest income earned has increased by 14.6% rising from $15,100 to $17,300 (Statistic Canada 2015). The highest decile increased by 24.6% to an income of 130,600 (Statistic Canada 2015). The after tax income is rising but, the wealthy are becoming more
Poverty is a complex societal issue, no matter how it is defined, it can be agreed that it is an issue that requires everybody’s attention. There are two types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute is the deprivation of basic human needs such as food, shelter, clean drinking water, etc. It is measured in relation to the poverty line and serves as a minimum standard below which no one should fall regardless of where they live. Relative poverty on the other hand, is more country specific and is defined as not being able to afford the goods and services needed to fully participate in mainstream society.
Canada is regarded as one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. This indication is contrary to the well-being reality affecting Canadians. Despite being part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), Canada has lagged behind her otherwise wealthy counterparts in the industrialized countries being position 19 out of 22 nations (Breznitz and Zysman, 2013). This has been attributed to the precarious levels of poverty in a majority of Canadian households. The country has not recognized any official poverty measurement although other universal measures such as LICO is used for measuring relative poverty, a more determinable measure of poverty for wealthy countries.
Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better
When it comes to poverty, there is the magnitude of definitions explaining the term. The definition of poverty has important implications from point of view of policy making, politics and academic debates. Each view has its own value judgments and explanations. Over the times, new definitions have surfaced the debates and yet, there is not a single universally acceptable definition of poverty. Definitions usually set the perimeters of the terminology and often subject to limitations and criticism. According to the definition of the World Bank, the term lack refers to the scarcity of economic resources while the term inability refers to the failure of competence to take part in a community (Bellu & Liberati, 2005). It is now widely
Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.
Poverty is a massive issue today, it surrounds all of life’s experiences, and it impacts on the future for people everywhere, and on health everywhere in society. Poverty is not just related to unemployment or
Poverty is the state of having little or no money, goods, circumstance of being poor. One out of seven people in the United States live in poverty, Approximately 50 million Americans one in six people struggle with hunger, many are children. How is the U.S. poverty line determined? First established in 1965 by the social security administration, the poverty line was based on an assumption that the average family must spend about one-third of its total income on food. The official poverty line was determined by a family market basket at low cost food budget that contains a minimum level of nutrition for a family multiplied by three to allow for nonfood cost such as rent and utilities. At a poverty line of $1.25per day, more than 1.4 billion people live in absolute poverty which is a condition that exists when people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life. While others live in relative poverty that is a condition that exists when people can afford basic such as food, clothing, and shelter but cannot maintain an average standard of living in comparison to that of other members of their society or group. The United States has a number of class divisions that are characterized by widely diverse lifestyles and life chances. Upper class is the wealthiest and most powerful class, Upper-middle class is composed of professional’s (ex. Attorneys, physicians). Middle class are white collar office workers (ex. Teachers, nurses). Working class are considered
“Poverty is a way of life for the poor that is passed down from generation to generation through the family.” Explain and assess this view.