Poor people exist everywhere, street corners, parks, and at your local supermarket. It’s impossible to ignore the epidemic in this country and around the world. If you turn on your television, you will likely view an advertisement to feed a starving child, or to donate to help rebuild a country that happens to be damaged due to a disaster. Let’s not forget the millions of dollars our tax payers pour out to aid in the rebuilding efforts after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some people say it’s not our job, citing that overpopulation led to the majority of our world’s problems. These people also believe that poverty and lack of resources has a direct link to the overpopulation issues of today. However other people, including myself, believe helping the poor doesn’t lead to overpopulation or lack of resources, it can actually increase resources and lower reproductive rates. In The Case for Helping the Poor, …show more content…
However according to the Bible this is exactly how God intends for us to live. Luke 16:20 introduces us to the story of Lazarus, a beggar, whom “full of sores” laid at a rich man’s gate (p. 317). In this parable both Lazarus and this rich man die. Lazarus was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” or heaven (Luke 16:22, p. 317). The rich man went to hell where Abraham points out to the rich man “in thy lifetime [you] receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke 16:25, p.317). The rich man subsequently pleads with Abraham to go to his father’s house where his family lives and ask them to testify that he is a good person. Abraham presents a point in saying that if his family refuses to listen to the living (i.e. Moses and the prophets), the dead will not persuade them. Perhaps if the rich man would have been Lazarus’ keeper he would have found the gates of
In the Working Poor, David Shipler shows the different levels of poverty in the United States. Although many people work every day they still do not have enough money to live their lives comfortably or contently. In chapter 1, Money and Its Opposite, discuss the different people that worked hard their entire lives only to remain in or below the poverty line. For instance, in the book Shipler speaks of the disadvantages that the working poor are susceptible to. Often being taken advantage of from employers that do not give accesses that they are entitled to, the working poor are more likely to be audit than the wealthy, and become victims of cons that point toward money for a small payment, first. The many that live in poverty often overspend.
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler describes about the lives of United States citizens who live within poverty. He highlights the U.S.’s disregard for its working poor, the nature of poverty, and the causes of poverty faced by low-wage earners. Shipler performs an amazing job with describing the factors that play their parts into the lives of U.S. citizens who live are poor and within poverty.
Poverty is more functional to the affluent members of society because they are the ones who benefit greatly from others living in poverty. In my opinion, there are a great number of people who are a part of the affluent society that lack compassion for others. This in turn results in them having more financial gains and people on the other end of the spectrum falling deeper and deeper below the poverty line. Members of the affluent society has also been known to utilize the impoverished to do the “dirty work,” which are strenuous low paying jobs that sometimes require an excessive amount of hours. Working these types of jobs, are not very beneficial to those living in poverty because of the downfalls they may cause on their households. Due to the amounts of hours that may be required, the impoverished often faces risks of losing their subsidies.
Firstly, I had learned that poor people also lack sufficient money amounts to live at a standard normalness in a society. Next, in class I learned through the ted talk that people, especially in rural countries are poor because their lacking education, immunizations and more. Next, in my opinion I believe that to stop or help prevent poverty, a suggestion would be to tax the rich more instead of the middle to lower class people who then could afford the basic needs. I believe this would work, because it would help balance things out in the economy so the rich doesn't get richer and the poor doesn’t get poorer so they can afford extra needs. Finally, in the Ted Talk, it makes me think about why wouldn’t more people help, especially the rich. Could it be because the rich thinks the poor should find a better job that will make money, causing the rich to not give? Or could it be greed is benefiting the rich, therefore causing no need to give to the poor. With these questions that pop up in my head there’s probably no real answer to stop poverty. To conclude, poverty is a big deal and I believe that more needs to be done to stop
Today's news is full of speculation and debate about the national debt, taxes and potential cuts to vital programs that serve those in need. However, the conversation often seems overly caught up in the finer points of politics and media coverage rather than the real people that these decisions affect. I think it's fair to say that American attitudes toward the poor are more often than not, disdain and fear. There's a common myth that people are forced into poverty because they are simply lazy or inferior, the truth is it is harder to feed and clothe your family than ever before. Poverty in this country is not accidental, it is a direct result of funneling wealth upstream; the rich get richer and the poor suffer. " The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want " Mark 14:7.
Did you have a cup of coffee today? Or maybe you went shopping for that new shirt for the summer? Your money could be going to a better cause. Of the 7.15 billion people on Earth today, approximately 2.4 billion people live on less than two dollars and day, and 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. More than eight-hundred people go to bed hungry, and more than one million people do not have access to clean drinking water. The amazing stat is that over eighteen thousand children die per day from diseases that are preventable. Kids die from a multitude of cause such as diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition, and disease. (Abbate, Global Poverty, 2014) Each could be prevented with the money you spent on that nonessential item for yourself. Most people do not seem to do this because of the out of sight out of mind principle. Since we never get to see how our aid actually helps those across the world, individuals are less inclined to help. In his article ,“The Singer Solution to World Poverty” (Landau, 2012) Peter Singer provides a unique argument in that he believes that we are no different than a murderer because we had the capability to stop it and didn’t do so. We have the ability to give what we essentially waste to maximize the happiness of another person and reduce poverty around the world. There are many charities out there, that can take the little money that we have or need to give, and can distribute it to help a magnitude of people worldwide. In this paper, I am arguing that we should give what money we can to relief and aid organizations in order to reduce global poverty because it is our duty to maximize the happiness around us.
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
The poor are everywhere it seems. They are on the street corner, in the local 7 Eleven, and in the plaza. Sometimes I get sick of them and even angry with them when they pester me for money. I ask myself, "Is the best way to deal with poor, to give them money from my pocket?" It's obvious that other people have given them money from their pockets at different times. If no one had ever given them money, then these people wouldn't be standing here asking for money. The fact is, many poor people ask for money because they know they can get money that way. For most of the last 70 years our government has indirectly given the poor money from our pockets, through taxes and welfare. Not surprisingly, people have continued to ask for money. For most of those 70 years welfare fed the mentality that the best way to get money was to ask. I believe welfare as it was first started, failed miserably and created millions of dependents in poverty instead of independents above poverty. The welfare reform of 1996, I believe has helped the poor escape from the trap of poverty and is a more beneficial way of dealing with the poor.
People always say how they are so poor, but do they really know the meaning of being poor. People who live under the poverty line are the ones considered poor by the government. There are many people who suffer being in poverty. The Census Bureau’s articles says, “In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent. There were 46.7 million in poverty,” (“2014 Highlights”). The percentage might not seem like a lot, but those are just the ones below the poverty line. There are many people who suffer who are just above the line or going back and forth. Another 1.9 billion people live just above it and struggle to make ends meet. (Lusted) Some even live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is those who can’t even have water, food, housing, and clothing. (Lusted) As for anyone in poverty though, it decreases their lifespan as these people don’t have the money for proper healthcare and nutrition. For one person in the 48 states excluding Hawaii and Alaska, the poverty line is set at $11,770. As you add more people to the family, t...
This topic about helping poor people get out of poverty is a critical issue. Almost 800 million people across the globe, most of them children, live with hunger or malnutrition as a regular fact of life. They live in desperate poverty, which means they die younger than they should, struggle with hunger and disease, and live with little hope and less opportunity for a life of dignity (USCCB). Poverty poses a dramatic problem of justice; in its various forms and with its various effects, it is characterized by an unequal growth that does not recognize the "equal right of all people to take their seat ‘at the table of the common banquet' (Social Doctrine of the Church) ."
A growing population can mean two very different things for a developing nation versus an already developed nation. For example, in developing nations many people live off of less than a dollar a day, with multiple mouths to feed, clothe, and shelter, poverty remains a large looming reality for many people living within underdeveloped nations. Sernau explains these realities, “One billion of the world’s people are in abject poverty, earning less than the equivalent of a dollar a day (see Collier 2007, The Bottom Billion). The United Nations places this group in the category of “extreme poverty.” Another billion earn less than $2 a day, enough to escape starvation but not enough to move out of poverty” (Sernau 21). However, population rates continue to grow throughout developing nations while these same rates continue to drop within already developed nations. Meaning that
Next, Herbert J. Gans’ essay, “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All”, is extremely important in the analysis of the frontline documentary. Gans has a bit of a different approach on poverty and the poor. For example, he says, “Today, poverty is more maligned than the political machine ever was; yet it, too, is a persistent social phenomenon.” Basically, he argues that the poor are a very important part in society. He goes on to explain different functions of poverty. First, he states that the existence of poverty ensures that society’s dirty work will be done. Society in some ways forces the poor to do these jobs because they almost always don’t have the choice, and they make them do these at low wages. This was one of the hard things
When my mother saw beggars standing at the intersection asking for help, my mom would try to help them by giving them the money, but my father would argue that you should not help because this would only encourage them to rely on other people’s help. My father says they should be helped by the government, instead of helped by individuals. It is not our responsibility to take care of them. I disagree with both of them because they do not look at or think about the problem closely enough. I think people are not only facing problems with wealth, but diseases, and war.
Poverty is prevalent throughout the world around us. We watch television and see famous people begging us to sponsor a child for only ten dollars a month. We think in our own minds that ten dollars is only pocket change, but to those children and their families, that ten dollars is a large portion of their annual income. We see images of starving children in far away countries, and our hearts go out to them. But we really do not know the implications of poverty, why it exists, or even what we can do to help combat this giant problem in our world.
Has anyone ever considered thinking about what the world is really going through? How many people don’t have the necessities in order to survive? If so, what are these people going through? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a standard or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Sometimes events occur that changes a person’s perspective on life. Poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/her. Over half of the world is going through this tragedy and we, being the ones who created it, have the responsibility to end it.