Poverty: A Structural Issue and Society's Responsibility

Running head: ECONOMICS 1
Poverty
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Author Note

ECONOMICS 2
In simple terms, poverty is defined is a denial of individual opportunities and choices.
Therefore, it is a degradation of human dignity. It is also unjust and at the same time disgraceful
condition which through history has haunted humanity. There are a number of sentiments that
people in most cases associate with the poor which may be factually wrong like laziness,
shiftiness, parasitic or un intelligent (Berzin, 2010). Therefore, poverty should be every one's
concern regardless it’s self created or not due to the following reasons.
Thesis statement
Poverty is Poverty is as a result of social forces beyond the control of the individuals, therefore
the society should be responsible for the poor
Poverty is not an individual responsibility to a larger extent. In other words some causes
of poverty are beyond one's control and may be due to economic or social settings. Take a case
of chronically poverty in some parts of the world. When there is no significant ownership of
resources, no education and others. Meaning that such categories of the population can not
engage in production and at the same time attain employment opportunities given that the lack
resources and skills respectively. Therefore, the mismatches in resource ownership and skills
make poverty a concern of the society.
It is imperative to note that most of the poverty experienced in the universe originates
from the social structure. Meaning that without fundamental changes in structures poverty

ECONOMICS 3
cannot be eliminated. The view that poverty is due to irresponsibility, immortality, laziness and
others may not stand at all. To a larger extent the social structural underpinnings causes
poverty. Most disparities in employment, education and income arise from racism, segregation
and sexism. It is important for there to be a high level of prudency while blaming the poor,
given that poverty in most cases is related to environmental and historical event. Therefore,
poverty can be addressed through looking at the structural influences since they are the main
causes of social challenges like inequality and poverty (Western etal.,2012).
The structural influences makes the poor to remain poor throughout there generation.
This may be regardless of one's intelligence or talents. Therefore it is the duty of the society to
be concerned about access to education for all if the deadlock of poverty is to be broken.
Therefore the intervention of the society through reforms and other strategies can help in
eliminating poverty
Studies carried out show that, individuals with no or little educational levels due to lack
of prenatal medical care, exposure to sufficient peer groups, role models and inability to
effectively parent can affect the unborn child. This in simple term means that uneducated
parents are more likely to also produce UN educated siblings (Russell etal.,2011)
Poverty brings about desperation in society which may result into crime or wasted lives.
Poor people in some third world countries have turned begging into a business. The desire to
attain the necessary needs makes the poor to engage in criminality which threaten security in a
society. Secondly, most people are more likely to suffer from all forms of health challenges and
illness which increases government expenditure (Weber, 2010). Therefore, the society needs to