The Causes And Effects Of Poverty And Violence

Post the economic crisis in America and the recession during the years of 2008 and 2009, the country saw a great increase in poverty and worsening of living conditions of Americans. Currently, almost 50 million of fellow Americans are living in extremely bad conditions under the poverty line which means earning less than $11490 for a single person or $23550 for a family of four people. That’s about 1 in every 6 people in this country are living under poverty. A person living in this country on minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour also cannot pull himself out of poverty even after working 40 hours a week.

As a main theme in Hunger and Shame, child malnutrition is a serious problem that has affected many different societies. Child malnutrition is a complicated concept that often has many causes; each society is different and must be studied closely to fully understand the reason for such a horrific epidemic. Focusing on the Chagga population, many factors catalyzed the epidemic including environmental, cultural, and global.

A sociological imagination is the idea of how a personal experience can affect society as a whole. At some point a personal issue becomes a public issue. Conflict theory is the idea of competition over limited resources such as money. The theory is about domination and power rather than peace and cooperation. Those with power and wealth try to maintain that position by suppressing those without. The United States poverty is most easily explained by the conflict theory because in the US, the wealthy stay wealthy and the poor stay poor due to suppression.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mahatma Gandhi’s words still ring true in today’s society. Poverty is nothing to sweep under the rug or put on the back burner. While many statistics state that poverty is decreasing, other sources state the opposite. Poverty is a hot topic in the U.S., foreign countries, and speaks true about many genders, ethnic groups, and children.

Homelessness is an epidemic problem that faces many American’s and families across the United States, especially in Detroit. You may see homeless people sleeping in the underpasses of freeways or walking and sitting on street corners or holding up a sign asking for some support for their next meal. We all have seen homeless individuals and thought it was not our problem for their circumstances or maybe had a belief he/she was lying about their situation. Many of us make a choice to give money or buy food, but there are others who make a choice to ignore or overlook the homeless population. Society has placed a stigma and label the homeless population labeling them destitute by choice, but for many homelessness has become a way of life.

The consensus concerning the state of all societies in the world is that each society has its unique problem. Some of these problems are poverty, insecurity, poor hygiene, and underdevelopment. The most prevalent of these problems is poverty which has affected many parts of the world. Its ability to regurgitate in subsequent generations of families creates a vicious cycle which seems unstoppable. Poverty seems to be a culture in its right with the ability to attract other societal vices such as violence and retrogressive behavior. The effects brought about by poverty in society are dehumanizing, and they further increase the prevalence of other social problems such as insecurity and underdevelopment.

Within this nine-chapter, two-part book, author Paul Farmer single handedly both analyzed, and harshly critiqued the central and deeply rooted ideas of poverty throughout the world. In his book, Pathologies of Power, he tackles the daunting and largely misunderstood topic of poverty “to reveal the ways in which the most basic right-the right to survive- is trampled in an age of great affluence... (pg.6). Farmer, is both a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard, a doctor, and a founding director of Partners in Health, which is a global health organization that is concentrated in the most poverty-stricken areas to bring proper health care to those in need. These positions have allowed him to travel to some of the most underdeveloped areas in the world, with the largest portion of his time spent in Haiti. The experiences and observations that Farmer made in these locations provided him with a foundation of first-hand knowledge to come to the conclusion that the inequality toward the poor in terms of their basic human rights creates social violence, which is a

“I’ve never lost my fierce grudge against poverty. It is the most savage of all human afflictions, claiming victims who can’t mobilize their efforts against it, who often lack strength to digest what little food they scrounge up to survive” (1).

Citizens live below the standards of economic and human development. I still remember walking and playing on unpaved streets and attending an educational establishment with no window, door, or even enough desks. Living in a small town with only one road to enter, which runs along the banks of a cliff. I was a small town girl, who grew up around devastating conditions.The vivid images feel like a movie screen divided into short scenes of poverty, violence, and lack of education that affects the population as a whole. There in Guatemala I thought about my present and my future as something inextricably tied to a rotten fate and decadent survival without opportunities for educational excellence. When I was 3 years my parents left and I was raised by my grandfathers and other family members. Even though water and food was always on our table the extreme levels of poverty were seen outside my house. Poverty rather than a situation became a way of life that arises as a result of the difficult access to resources to meet the basic needs of the population, such as food, housing, education, healthcare, and drinking

Poverty, a faulty and inadequate education system, police brutality, drugs and violence are a few of the issues that plague the community that raised me. At a very young age, I was exposed to all these social issues and they have shaped and influenced who I am today. Being a victim to these issues, growing up was not easy, but I always hoped that I could make a change. As a young Mexican-American woman, daughter of immigrant parents and victim to numerous social issues complicating my ability to succeed, I was never sure how I would ever be able to accomplish anything, all I knew is that I wanted to change my community for the better and to liberate it from oppression. Although I always dreamed of making huge changes in community, I never knew how I would ever be able to change it for the better.

Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Based off this definition poverty is a condition that can cause a cascade of cause and effect actions that is detrimental to families and individuals both physically and mentally. Haan, Kaplan, & Camacho (2017) completed a study on the correlation between social and economic status and health in adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the lower the socioeconomic class the higher incidents of diseases and deaths related to chronic diseases (p.1161-1162). Just being without money or little money was not the only indication of health indication, a person living in an area with higher poverty issues

According to Ahmed (2011), the International Food Study Institute had a brief on a collection of far-reaching studies that analyzed the causes of poverty, analyzing households and reviewing empirical research in 20 different countries. They found that the major causes of poverty were the inability of poor households to invest in property and education, limited access to credit, in some cases these instances produce more poverty by inherited poverty. “The systematic marginalization of ethnic minorities, women and people with disabilities and health issues. War and violence may be some of the primary causes of poverty. Political violence and organized crime have affected 39 countries since 2000”, Smith (2011). These two items, poverty and violence

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

As our world settles for more poverty more and more complications are created, starting with the increasing death rate. As families get poor, it is difficult to sustain a livable life while taking care of others. They begin to die without adequate water and food, while bringing

Thousands of individuals are living in poverty. Why is it that this worldwide dilemma is still rising in rapid numbers till this day? Is it because of a lack of authoritative power, or a lack of one’s self control to do good? Despite the unknown cause, it has managed to drastically affect the lives of many. Poverty is like a curse, one that is wrongfully placed, difficult to get out of, and resistant to many forms of help.