Causes
Individuals who have a lower-than-average ability to earn income, for whatever reason, are likely to be poor. Historically, this group has included the elderly, people with disabilities, single mothers, and members of some minorities. In the West today, a significantly large group in the poverty-stricken population consists of single mothers and their children; these families account for about one-third of all poor people. Not only do women who work outside the home generally earn less than men, but a single mother often has a difficult time caring for children, running a household, and earning an adequate income. Other groups disproportionately represented below the poverty threshold are people with disabilities and their dependants, very large families, and families in which the principal wage earner is either unemployed or works for low wages.
Lack of educational opportunity is another cause of poverty. In the developed world, a larger percentage of blacks than whites are poor today, in part because of a heritage of inferior education, meaning reduced employment opportunities later.
Much of the world's poverty is due to a low level of economic development. China and India are examples of heavily populated, developing nations where, despite substantial recent industrialization, poverty is rampant. Even in economically developed countries, widespread unemployment can create poverty. The Great Depression impoverished millions of Americans and Europeans in the 1930s. Less severe economic contractions, called recessions, cause smaller increases in the poverty rate.
Effects
Tens of thousands of poor people throughout the world die every year from starvation and malnutrition. Infant mortality rates are higher and life expectancy lower among the poor.
Poverty is closely associated with crime. Most of the poor are not criminals, and many criminals are not poor, but people from environments dominated by poverty are more likely to commit crimes and to be punished. Other social problems, such as mental illness and alcoholism, are common among the poor, in part because they are causes as well as effects of poverty, and often because there is little medical provision for dealing effectively with them. Finally, poverty tends to breed poverty; in some cases, the handicap of poverty is passed from one generation to another, possibly as a result of the family being caught in a poverty trap—a situation in which a relatively small increase in income will take the family over the threshold for entitlement to benefits, thereby creating a net loss. One possibly consequence of this is that members of the household may be discouraged from seeking employment, losing the opportunities for social advancement that such employment might afford them.
By Charlotte Battle 9F
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