...Introduction As I was reading the chapters/PowerPoint for this week’s post it provoked a lot of feelings and questions that I will explore in the following paragraphs. In addition to provoking feelings and questions, it also educated me and I realize how people are affected by poverty in different ways. Situational Poverty vs. Generational Poverty I did not know that there were two categories to define poverty (e.g., generational poverty and situational poverty). Throughout my life, I have seen generational poverty and situational poverty in relations to my friends and community members; however I never knew that those circumstances had an actual name. As I kept reading the chapter it made me feel uneasy because I neither identify with generational...
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...Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Introduction Poverty is a condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met, which remains at the core of concept today. However, “food, clothing, and shelter” are itself no less problematic than the concept of poverty. Townsend (2010) posited that people can be said to be in poverty when they are deprived of income and other resources needed to obtain the conditions of life such as the diets, material goods, amenities, standards and services that enable them to play the roles, meet the obligations and participate in the relationships and customs of their society. In most developing countries, poverty is more widespread and severe in rural than in urban areas. According to International Fund for Agricultural Development (2011), the largest segment of the world’s poor is the women, children and men who live in rural environments. These are the farmers and herders, the fishers and migrant workers, the artisans and indigenous peoples whose daily struggles seldom capture world attention. Furthermore, Olinto (2013) cited that more than three quarters of those living in extreme poverty are in rural areas and nearly two thirds of the extremely poor earn a living from agriculture. The world of today performs strikingly well in terms of important measurable indicators of human development: nearly all children are immunized, almost all children of school going age are enrolled and attendance...
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...English Comp Argument essay 11-17-11 “If I write about the poor, I don’t need a good imagination-I have to have a good memory” Eaton 1970 Poverty in Rural Vermont America is changing and maybe not for the good. In many states, it isn’t out of the ordinary to see a homeless person on the sidewalk asking for money. Here in Vermont however it was never such an issue. However, in recent years there isn’t a day that a person can drive through a local town like Main Street in Brattleboro without seeing someone asking for food or money. There aren’t enough jobs for these people or they don’t get paid enough to survive. Stories of homeless families are a lot more common than one would like to think. How many people in this weak economy can actually help someone out? Most people would, but they themselves are struggling to survive. So with everyone having such a hard time surviving in Vermont, what is the solution? Most people would answer we need more jobs; others would say that there needs to be an increase in pay rates to keep up with the daily cost of living. With Vermont poverty increasing over the years, jobs and services aren’t enough to keep people from living in poverty or even becoming homeless. Many Americans don’t understand what homeless families struggle with and trying to explain to a child why they live the way they do. The first step in understanding this issue is confronting cultural attitudes towards poverty. Professor of politics, Lawrence Mead III...
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...Poverty There are many different reasons why poverty occurs and as such there are many different avenues to pursue in the eradication of poverty. Poverty is a growing problem throughout the United States and within our own communities. With businesses such as textiles closing down and the relocating of jobs into other countries, more Americans are out of work. (McKernan and Ratcliffe, 2002). With all these people out of work, it is only logical that poverty is on the rise. We have to find the reason this happens and work on a solution for the growing problem. What does it mean to be poor in America? There is no single description of American poverty. But for many, perhaps most, it means homes with inadequate heating, unstable plumbing, and uncertain electricity. Poverty is a condition in which a person or family does not have the means to satisfy basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Poverty often means a home where some go to bed hungry and malnutrition is very frequent. For almost all poverty stricken families it means that life is a constant struggle to obtain the merest necessities of existence, the things most of us take for granted. One’s race does not matter every race has people who are in poverty. Poverty is not something that affects only those people who are out of work, there are many people who are working and are still faced with poverty. Poverty does not seem logical and it, does happen more often than we may realize...
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...Global Poverty If I was to describe world poverty I will have to quote Mother Teresa “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty of them all”. I believe this quote says it all. It really shows what poverty is about. It made me realize that people that are poor don’t just need to be feed and sheltered, but also need to be loved. While some of us just think of what we could do to better our homes and cars many people living in absolute poverty just want clean water, food, shelter, and their health. It makes you want to step back and look at life in different perspective and want to better the world we live in. Poverty is the most essential problem we have to today and has been a continuous problem since the beginning of time. No matter what the income, unemployment or overall prosperity level is, there will always be people who are homeless and hungry around the world. I recall myself saying when I was younger to my peers that I was poor and grew up with little because we had a one bedroom house and I had to wear passed down clothing from my older sibling, but after traveling to various countries I have recognized that I was never deprived of anything. I had all my meals and plenty of clothes and shelter in which some people wish they had. Poverty doesn’t discriminate billions of people lack basic resources including food, water, education and sanitation...
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...When I hear the word “poverty” I automatically think of homeless people, but poverty can stretch to even the wealthiest people. I believe that everyone at some point in their lives struggles from poverty, whether it be emotional, social, spiritual, or financial. The type that stood out to me in the Catcher in the Rye, 12 Angry Men, and in my life was emotional poverty. Emotional and mental poverty can be hard to deal with and in these circumstances were all dealt with differently. In The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden was dealing with multiple types of poverty. He struggled with social poverty, not really having many friends or not really relating to most people. By always put on a different face and personality for almost all of the people he met in the book. He showed his emotional poverty through that as well. In my opinion, Holden also showed some mental poverty through not really knowing what to do or where to go. Also, Holden showed some cases of depression, he never really seemed truly happy or satisfied in what he was doing unless it was with Phoebe or helping little kids. To me it looked as if he was hiding his...
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...Poverty and homelessness are two issues that have become more and more common over the past several years. In just about every city, every state, and every country is a homeless population or families who live at or below the poverty level. While poverty and homelessness are sometimes the result of failed social connections, there are several other factors that can contribute to this issue like an economic recession, the onset of a mental illness, and even the involvement in the child welfare system. However, such factors can even be the end result of failed social connections. For the most part, I think that poverty and homelessness are a result of failed social connections. Many people fall into the wraths of poverty and homelessness because of a constant decrease in services, supports, and social assistance like financial assistance programs for those with low income or those who have lost a job. In addition, this problem becomes worse for those who grow up in a family with little to no income. If someone grows up in a poverty stricken family, it is much harder for them to get out of poverty as they typically have less resources than a person from a middle-class or wealthy family. Chances are they will not have a strong social network to turn to when it comes to attending college or...
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...of Untied States of America, My Name is Betty Johnson and I am 30 years old. I am writing to you because I am very concerned with the future of the citizens in this country. Throughout my life poverty has been Americas "Darkest Secret". I never Really hear news Reports on the growing percentage of Americans living in poverty, or the ways the government is trying to fix this issue. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan where more than a third of residents live below the poverty line (Sasha Abramsky, "America's Shameful Poverty Stats"). Throughout my childhood I have watched many friends' families struggle financially. Sometimes my friends would go without eating for a couple of days simply because they could not afford it. I would offer them food but they would kindly decline because they were so embarrassed because of their situation. They would wear clothes that wouldn't fit them because they couldn't afford to buy new clothes. They would miss school to watch their little siblings because their mom was a single parent and had to work all day everyday just so she could feed them. They didn't even apply to college because they knew they had to immediately pick up a crapy job so they could help their mom pay the bills. The list goes on. All of this is happening under your supervision and it doesn't seem like much is affectively fixing this issue. America's lowest percentage of citizens living below the poverty line was 11.1 percent in 1973. It reached 15.2 percent in 1983 then...
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...Suggestions to Reduce Poverty in Egypt Introduction: Poverty has spread into the whole globe, and most nations are suffering from lack of food and basic needs. One out of two children in the world are considered poor, and 3 billion people live with less than $2.50/day (Causes of Poverty, 2012). Sometimes it is easy to blame poor people for their situation because some are accusing them of being lazy, but most of the times the governments in poor countries are the one who blame. However, it is essential for the governments around the world to makeshift and end this problem. Egypt is one of the countries whose people suffer from poverty. In order for a country to develop, it is important to reduce the percentage of poverty in that country, and Egypt is one of the countries that have to initiate and reduce poverty. In 2010, the percentage of people who lives on less than $1.25 a day is around 25% of the whole population (Poverty and Equity, 2011). Poverty is one of the major reasons that led Egyptians to revolt against Hosni Mubarak who was the president of Egypt for 30 years. Egyptians after the revolution have high hopes on the new president Mohamed Morsi, who received 51.7% of the last presidential elections, to lower the poverty and corruption. While Egypt has used a number of strategies to reduce poverty, much more remains to be accomplished. In this paper, I will provide background information on Egypt, I will examine the extent of poverty in Egypt, I will evaluate the strategies...
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...Poverty is the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. It is the condition where people’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met. There are generally two types, absolute poverty is synonymous with destitution and occurs when people cannot obtain adequate resources to support a minimum level of physical health. Absolute poverty means about the same everywhere, and can be eradicated as demonstrated by some countries. Relative poverty occurs when people do not enjoy certain minimum level living standards as determined by a government that vary from country to country, sometimes within the same country. Relative poverty occurs everywhere, is said to be increasing and my never be eradicated. There are over 48 million Americans live in poverty, according to a special report by the Census Bureau (money.cnn.com). The government programs such as food stamps, caps (childcare and parent services program) is designed to help low income families afford safe quality child care, and section 8 which is a rental housing assistance program that authorizes payments of rental housing to private landlords on behalf of approximately 4.8 million low-income households do help some of the people in the Unites States but it is not enough. There are still 16% of American children living in poverty according to a supplemental report. According to the census report the official poverty line was $23,283 last year for a family of...
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...Acknowledgement I would like to acknowledge God for giving me the wisdom and my teacher for providing guidance in doing this assignment. I would like to thank the respondents for participating and your cooperation in allowing me to collect information on the various questions I have put before you. This assignment would not have been possible without you. I thank you all. INTRODUCTION This Internal Assessment (I.A) will examine major factors that impinge on the issue of poverty, the analysis of which relates to problems of social integration of all members of society in the Caribbean. In its preparation, use has been made not only of the most recent data, but also of data relevant to periods, such as to detect trends of social development in terms of poverty and the direction of the process of social integration. This I.A. investigates the causes and effects, and solutions to, Poverty. Poverty is the state or condition of having little or no money, goods or means of support. The point of this I.A. is to find out the causes and effects of Poverty. This I.A. will outline the statement of the problem/aims, reasons why I chose Poverty, method of investigation, instrument of data collection/questionnaire, procedure for data collection, presentation of data, interpreting/analysis of data, findings/conclusions and recommendations. Numerous studies have been undertaken for the purpose of assessing...
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...English Comp 111 15 February 2015 Finding a Solution to Poverty Are we doing enough to eliminate poverty and help the poor? How are people still starving with all of the sources we have as a country? Poverty exists for many reasons including: lack of education, unemployment, housing, and money. There are no overnight solutions to this world wide epidemic, but some of our leaders are just as much to blame by turning their heads rather than finding the solutions. According to statistics one out of eight individuals suffers from malnutrition. This means that out of 7 billion people in the world, 870 million are still underfed. In Jonathan Swift’s “Modern Proposal” essay, he snubs the Irish and English rulers for their economic policies concerning the poor. Swift explains that they are not dealing with the issue of poverty in Ireland by refusing to create a solution. Citizens and those in power need to create lasting solutions to end poverty in our nation. Jonathan Swift essay, “Modern Proposal” presents solutions to keep poor children from being a burden to their families. The English government turned their heads to the deplorable economic conditions in which the people were living in and he hated the inhumanity that he witnessed. Ireland was in dire poverty and most of the victims were women and children that were beggars (630-631). So Swift devised a number of proposal and solutions to rid Ireland of this problem. Swifts argues that poor children would be better off being...
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...SOC100: Introduction to Sociology December 7, 2012 For this assignment I chose to investigate the issue of poverty and how it affects young children. In the dictionary poverty is defined as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor. According to our textbook, there is relative or absolute poverty. Relative poverty means the some people lack resources that are taken for granted by others. This type of poverty exists in every society. Absolute poverty is a lack of resources that is life threatening. (Macionis, 307) The issue of poverty falls into the sociological term, global stratification, patterns of social inequality in the world as a whole. (Macionis, 300). The article that I have chosen is “The Effects of Poverty on Children” written by Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Greg Duncan. They go into detail about how family poverty is associated with a child’s health, achievement, and behavior. It is said that death comes early in poor societies because families lack the income to provide adequate food, safe water, secure housing, etc. (Macionis, 309) When a child lives in poverty it can affect them in many different ways. According to a table produced by Gunn & Duncan poor children suffer higher incidences of adverse health, developmental, other outcomes than non-poor children. (Gunn & Duncan, 58) I believe that sometimes when children grow up poor they think that they can never succeed because they didn’t grow up with the...
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...”Living in Poverty” – Richard Wright The definition of poverty can be a very individual thing, but if you ask people what they think poverty is, I think that most of them would say that it is lack of money. However, I also think that some of them, just a little group of them, would say: “Some people are so poor, all they got is money”. This is just one of the discussions, which involves poverty. It is also discussed whether poverty always will be in someone’s life if they are raised in it – and whether everybody has equal conditions when it comes to having a life without poverty, as a child or as an adult. In the essay “Living in Poverty” by Richard Wright poverty is the main theme. Richard Wright invites us in to the debate with his personal experiences and his story about living in Britain’s poor environment. Through the story Richard Wright get us to think – is poverty something in our mind? And is poverty really the only option for someone? The essay “Living in Poverty” is a creative non-fiction essay. More specifically; a personal essay, so I assume that Richard Wright is the “I” in the story. The essay is focusing on the topic ‘poverty’ through Richard Wright’s own stories and are therefore based on true and personal experiences. The whole story is about Richard Wright growing up – his childhood, teenage years and years as an adult. Richard Wright grew up in poverty, but he expresses that he never felt poor or saw he his family as a poor family. He grew up with a loving...
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...that will bring an end to poverty. The volunteers at Results receive training, support, and inspiration to become skilled advocates. Over time, volunteers learn to successfully advise policy makers, guiding them towards decisions that improve access to education, health, and economic opportunity. Multiply their impact through the massive power of advocacy whether it’s helping change policy to support millions of families putting food on the table or helping raise billions of dollars for the world’s most vulnerable children. Backed by the in-depth research and legislative expertise of staff, Results advocates realize the incredible power they possess to use their voices to change the world. They are a nonprofit and grassroots advocacy organization. That pushes for specific policies and legislation to address poverty and empowers people to become powerful voices for the end of poverty through grassroots advocacy. U.S Poverty Campaign: Results works to make a substantial difference in breaking the cycle of poverty in the United States while at the same time ensuring that our small but very engaged grassroots network makes a strategic impact; a couple of their main focuses are creating economic mobility: building ladders out of poverty, keeping food on the table: protecting federal nutrition programs, and empowering grassroots activists: grassroots health and expansion. For example, their goal for creating economic mobility: building ladders out of poverty is enacting policies that...
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