Poverty: A Form of Slavery

Today they say that we are free, Only to be chained in poverty -- Bob Marley

This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main approaches that this is achieved is through economic systems, influencing government policies, and global stratification. Defining poverty is not a simple task and this is what this paper will tackle first.

WHAT IS POVERTY

Poverty is difficult to define exactly, as it has different meanings to different people depending on what country they live in, what culture they belong to, and how much income they earn. All these factors and more will change the way poverty is defined by an individual or organization (Seabrook, 2007, p.35). Adam Smith the classical economist had this view of poverty “poverty is a lack of those necessities that the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without” (Richmond and Saloojee, 2005, p.33). Another popular view of poverty is that of Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen who said the poor “cannot participate adequately in communal activities, or be free of public shame from failure to satisfy conventions” (Richmond and ...

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