The Causes Of Poverty

Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However poverty is more than not just having money. In addition to a lack of money, poverty is about not being able to participate in recreational activities; Not being able to send children on a day trip with classmates or to a birthday party, and not being able to pay for medications in times of illness. The poorest people will also have less access to health, education and other vital services. Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society. The poorest are also typically marginalized from society and have little representation or voice in public and political debates, making it even harder to escape poverty. Poverty is a direct threat to society and equal rights in America.

Over the past years poverty has become more common in America, affecting millions of Americans. There are two types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty. According to  Merriam-Webster (2017), Absolute poverty is not having any basic human needs to survive, in the other hand, relative poverty is not having enough money or resources like others in society do. Poverty is caused by lack of money, jobs, and education.

Poverty generates crime, broken families, drug addiction, illness, illiteracy and even more poverty and ultimately undermines the quality of life for everyone in an economy, not just the poor. Furthermore, there are addition hidden cost of poverty which include property loss, deteriorating real estate values, bodily injury, and increased public and private expenditures for insurance, law enforcement, court cases, prisons, and health care, plus the lost productivity of people who could be employed or more gainfully employed.(http://www.infoplease.com/cig/economics/ultimate-issue-quality-life.html)

The overall all causes of poverty in United states is the poor economy, the lack of jobs, affordable housing, education, and healthcare. (4) The poor economy is causing the competition for jobs to be high. With more people trying to find well-paying jobs, the jobs become scares. Having a minimum amount of jobs make life harder for middle-class Americans. They depend on those jobs so they can support their families. Not having the income to pay for food and monthly bills is a primary cause of poverty. The lack of money causes people to lose the thing that is beneficial for day to day life. Not only are people losing their houses and cars they are also losing motivation, faith, dignity, and they begin to turn to drug, alcohol or to commit crimes.

American economist and statistician, Mollie Orshansky, was the woman who gave America the way on how to measure poverty that we call the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds. The Census Bureau issues the poverty thresholds every year and that produces the status of the American people economically. The very term “poverty” continues to evoke debates on what it actually means to be poor. There are many studies that have been conducted to determine what is the cause of poverty in America and what we can do to help diminish it. From a sociological standpoint, one thing everyone should focus on when it comes to poverty is to ask yourself why people are living the way they are. People do not just wake up one day and decide that they want to be poor, let

When we think of the word "poverty", the mind fills us with Third World countries. We think of countries within the African continent, Haiti, Central and South America, among others. The United States is a country with a heterogeneous society, full of many races and nationalities. However, we forget that poverty can be in front of us. How many times have we wondered if our neighbor, coworker, or our students are going through some need?

Poverty is a tricky subject to approach. The functionalist would say poverty, or the lower-class, are necessary to maintain a functioning society. They are more willing to take on menial tasks out of desperation. If everyone was a wealthy doctor, who would work in the factory making the instruments, clean the bathroom or work the reception desk? I say this jokingly, but it would also create chaos as “doctor’s make the worst patients!”

Poverty refers to the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. Society often classifies this state as being poor. According to dosomething.org, 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat, and nearly ½ of the world's population lives on less than 2.50 dollars a day. Dosomething.org states that 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty on less than 1.25 a day, 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty, and 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. These statistics are rather alarming, and the first step to finding a solution to this problem is determining the exact cause. Many would ask how this transpired. The answer to this is the determining factor of what happened and the cause of

There are several opposing theories about the causes and of poverty in minority populations in the United States. The divide splits the cultural and behavior arguments, and the structural and economic ones. Though the arguments made by Wilson for the structural causes of poverty are less damaging for the individual and places more of the blame on economic, political, and other institutional forces for the cause of inner city poverty for African Americans.

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

Poverty is one of the most prevalent issues in our world today. In many third world countries, most of citizens live in poverty. Somalia is one of these third world countries that have extreme rates of poverty. There are many factors that have led to these major rates of poverty. Somalia’s economy is very bad because of the high unemployment rates and piracy. Because of the civil war that happened in Somalia, the government is not able to help decrease poverty levels. Lack of education in the country makes it difficult for people to get jobs. The economy, the government and the education levels are some of the most prevalent issues leading to this high rate of poverty within Somalia.

It is said that because of poverty is the unwillingness to be employed as well as structural instability (Berg, 2013). It is evident that the lack of a job to provide income; high crime rate that retail investors from establishing businesses that would provide employment; and the unwillingness of individuals to become creative. These and other negative factors will always encourage poverty.

“The reasons poverty rates remain high despite the [economic] recovery has to do with wage decline and failure of the “safety net” i.e, the government systems of taxes and transfers designed

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.

This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main