Poor

I once believed that poverty was a state of mind that resulted in a variety of physical and mental manifestations. While this may be true in some cases, the simple truth is that many people around the world are born in poverty with virtually no exposure to any other way of life. Others may find themselves in its clutches due to personal choices or from circumstances beyond individual control. The same as any other social issue, it is important to understand the cause of poverty; however the complexity of the problem is such that society is bogged down in assumptions and attitudes that have permeated the minds of community members as a whole. Likewise, there appears not to be a clearly defined agreement concerning what poverty actually means. In terms of the monetary definition of poverty, a line of income has been established to identify individuals and families living in poverty without consideration for all the variables that exist within individual human beings. It has been determined that even if a person crosses over that line by one dollar, he or she is no longer living in poverty. Common sense dictates that there is no magical line, and one cannot evaluate poverty strictly by financial means. Poverty varies significantly by geography and culture and may be confused, especially in the United States, with a temporary state of being financially challenged. The difference in poverty is not only financially driven, but resides in the prevalence or absence of hopes, dreams, and/or opportunities for the future. Many college students live below the poverty line, but one understands that this is temporary and will be eradicated sometime in the near future. It is acceptable to be poor as a college student, and may even be viewed as ...

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... anguish and abuse that she suffered as a consequence of her family’s poverty. Overall, I relate individuals that are poor directly to circumstances of devastating sadness, high stress, and daily chaos; although I know that these conditions are not always accurate views.

There is no need to “always have the poor with us” as a society. As human beings, we should take care and value one another in a way that translates into the eradication of poverty. There is a great deal of societal change that would need to occur in order for attitudes to shift and embrace individual responsibility towards eliminating poverty. While the concept is obtainable, as societal systems currently persist throughout diverse cultures in capitalistic societies, the picture emerges of a world where the labeling of the poor according to socioeconomic measures will persevere far into the future