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Banned user

Registered: 05-2005
Posts: 84
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Well How Poor are You?


    Poverty is a serious problem. It affects everybody from 200 miles away to a meager two miles away. The wealthiest nations of the world take advantage of the poverty stricken areas to make profit. The margins between the poor and rich are increasing every year. However, the problem is more than just numbers. It is about the people who are poverty stricken; the same people you might walk past and not even notice. It is the homeless person you try to ignore when you see glance toward you.

  In 1998 the U.S. had a poverty rate of 12.7 percent. Since then it has been steadily declining, however, many Americans view poverty as a healthy problem necessary for a stable economy. The fact is that approximately three billion people, around the world, live on two dollars per day. Most of these people live in developing nations where manual labor jobs are the only ones available. Most often these people have little or no education; therefore those that are hurt the most are the children who are brought into a life of poverty.

  With millions of children dying each year due to poverty it is hard to really comprehend the full destruction that poverty can cause.

  The level at which someone is poverty stricken in the U.S. according the Census Bureau is: $8,959 for a single person, $11,869 for a couple, and $17,463 for a family of two adults and two children.

  However, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty level is: one person in the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Washington, D.C. is $8,590, one person in Alaska is $9,890, two people in the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Washington, D.C. is $11,610, and four people in the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Washington, D.C. -- $17,650.

  Around the world this amount of income would be more than enough to support a family. In a way the standard of poverty in America is directly proportional to the wealth of other nations and their people.

  Although one might think that in a rich nation like the U.S. poverty among the young is not a threat to the economy, it can in fact be devastating in the long term. In today's changing work environment where education and training are the keys to success the poverty-stricken youth can only watch and hope for the kind of experience needed for a decent job.

  This lack of training and education in the workforce can shake a stable economy and drag it down. The lack of a trained workforce will also eventually take its toll on nation's productivity and competitiveness. The toll taken is not just a nation's productivity, but to a child's development as well.

  Poverty is not just a problem in big cities or third world countries; rather, it can be as close as a town away. So why is it that we only see poverty occasionally and only in certain places? One reason is that we choose to see it in certain environments. We ignore or cannot comprehend the idea that poverty is so close to us.

  The media, in a way, also promotes the idea that poverty is prevalent in certain environments and in certain ethnic groups. Yet, in some ways people seem to automatically criticize or have a rigid notion that poor people are lazy and devoid of any intelligence. This preconceived idea or opinion is not just automatically implanted at birth, but rather, must be learned.

  If this is learned then making people aware and giving them the right facts could change their outlook over time. It is because of ignorance that people all over the world do not choose to help a stranger in need; and it is this ignorance that makes poverty such a social injustice.

  It is also a fact that poor people are more likely to get sicker than those who are not. It is not because they are unwilling to get medicine it is because they have no money to do so. Most often the poor have little or no health care at all. They have no heating to keep them warm on cold winter nights.

  Like a homeless person lying on a bench in the park, we often think they have few or no problems. In thinking this way we are wrong to assume poverty will go away and are partly at fault for its continuation.

  Poverty is often misinterpreted as a problem of minority groups. However, in many countries it is women that are looked upon as the "poorest of the poor." There is no doubt that gender discrimination plays a big part in the plight of women and poverty. It is therefore no shock that women are exploited throughout the world mostly due to their lack of options. The main role of women, in many developing countries, is still that of caretaker and any other options, such a getting a job, are suppressed.

  However, women's organizations are increasingly making advances in the equal treatment of females with the support of health care, childcare, and the basic ability to get an education in order to empower women.

  The solution to poverty is in the will of the people. It is this will of the people who want to make a change. It is in the desire to improve living standards through the means of education, political system, health programs, and income growth. The solution also calls for the sacrifice of much wealth and power by many nations. If we, as human beings, cannot learn to live as equals in a world where money is not a boundary, than the costs in human lives would be devastating. Not only would it be a grave mistake to overlook the drastic consequences of poverty, but it would also hinder the progress of the human race.

  So when was the last time you pulled a dollar, yen, pound, euro ect. out of your of your pocket and sent it to someone in another neighborhood or a gave it to what most people would call a bum much less another country to maybe pay someone a half day’s wage?

  Oh yeah everybody is worried about how much money their government is taxing them or just have to have that new music CD that hit the store’s yesterday or just maybe everybody feel they need to be a classified as a certain social class above the poor in all nations.

  How pathetic

TooLert


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Rewards should not be used alone. Punishments should not be relied on in isolation.
Otherwise, like spoiled children, people will become accustomed to either enjoying or resenting everything.
This is harmful and renders them useless.
31/May/05, 12:07 Link to this post Email   PM 
 


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