Poverty and Society: An Economic Analysis of Responsibility

This essay delves into the multifaceted nature of poverty, arguing that it is largely a result of social forces beyond individual control, thereby making it a societal responsibility. The author refutes the notion that poverty is solely due to individual failings like laziness or lack of intelligence, emphasizing the role of structural inequalities, historical marginalization, and disparities in access to resources and opportunities. The essay highlights how factors such as racism, sexism, and inadequate access to education perpetuate cycles of poverty across generations. It further explores the societal consequences of poverty, including increased crime rates and healthcare costs. The author suggests interventions such as special programs for marginalized communities, progressive taxation, and job creation strategies as potential solutions. The essay concludes by advocating for social, political, and economic empowerment to address the root causes of poverty, underscoring the importance of societal intervention to break the cycle of poverty and create a more equitable society.

Running head: ECONOMICS 1
Poverty
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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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

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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

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be concerned about the poor if government expenditure on health care is to be reduced.
Aggressive programs and policies such as condom distribution to the poor and sensitization can
help in reducing health challenges like HIV/ AIDS and others
However, if the poor can desist themselves from having children, getting married before
they can afford and put much focus on working hard and studying, poverty can be reduced
making it an individual concern. In other words mind set change is a big issue that has caused
poverty, for instance in some parts of the world there is ownership of resources, presence of
adequate infrastructure but poverty is still prevalent within the population, therefore through
sanitization by the society on how possible resources can allocated and effectively utilized and
poverty reduced meaning that poverty is an issue of the society (Pintelon etal.,2013).
Government can address poverty through developing special programs for the
historically marginalized communities. Special programs for the marginalized communities may
include among others; special poverty eradication funds, land redistribution, training and
education programs such as scholarships and bursaries.
Progressive taxation can also be used as a measure to address poverty. In other words
taxing the poor less and rich higher. Other strategies that can be used by Government to
eliminate poverty include; increasing benefits to the poor like child benefits, food stamps and
universal credit, reducing the level of unemployment through job creation strategies and lastly
maintaining sustained economic growth (Cuthrell etal.,2010).
Conclusively, poverty is a structural issue that needs to be addressed through social,
political and economic empowerment of the affected societies. Most cases of poverty in the

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universe have been mainly attributed to lack of ownership of factors of production, historical
marginalization and slavery making it by and large a concern of the society.

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References
Berzin, S. (2010). Educational aspirations among low-income youths: Examining multiple
conceptual models. Children & Schools, 32(2),
112-123.http://www.naswpress.org/publications/journals/cs.html
Cuthrell, K., Stapleton,J., Ledford, C.(2010). Examining the culture of poverty: Promising
practices. Preventing School Failure, 54(2). doi: 10.1080/10459880903217689
Pintelon, O., Cantillon, B., Van den Bosch, K. and Whelan, C.T. (2013) ‘The social stratification of
social risks: The relevance of class for social investment strategies’, Journal of European
Social Policy,23 (1): 52-67
Russell, H, Maître, B and Donnelly, N. (2011). Financial Exclusion and Over-Indebtedness in Irish
Households. Dublin: Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Weber, M. (2010). The distribution of power within the community: Classes, Stände, Parties by
Max Weber (Translated by Dagmar Waters, Tony Waters, Elisabeth Hahnke, Maren
Lippke, Eva Ludwig-Glück, Daniel Mai, Nina Ritzi-Messner, Christina Veldhoen and Lucas
Fassnacht ) in Journal of Classical Sociology(May 2010), 10(2): 137-152
Western, B., Bloome, D., Sosnaud, B. and Tach, L. (2012). ‘Economic Insecurity and Social
Stratification,’ Annual Review of Sociology38: 341-359 (Volume publication date August
2012)

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