Facing the truth
Thoughts about Poverty and Inequality
What is Poverty?
Hunger, lack of shelter, being sick and not being able to see a doctor, not having access to school, not having a job, fear for the future — These are some words and phrases that can be associated with poverty, but if we were to give it a further explanation, we can define it as a state or condition in which a certain community or person lacks in financial resources for a minimum standard of living. In other words, poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter.
What are the key trends in global poverty and inequality?
The key trends in global poverty and inequality was gotten from measuring the poverty in a certain region or nation. Measuring it is important because it provides the information needed to support better decisions, influence policy outcomes and increase accountability. So if we were to look at the trends one of the most noticeable one is that as the years goes by, the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Rich people tend to have more opportunities since they have “unlimited” or if not “enough” resources that can help them easily achieve what they want, but those who we call “poor” tends to think that they can’t do it since they do not have the capacity to achieve it, making them settle for less. Another trend is that many of the world’s poorest people no longer live in the world’s poorest countries, but rather they live in countries where the social inequality is prevalent and has a lot of social tensions that calls for a social justice.
Does capitalism eliminate or reinforce inequality?
After reading some opinions of different researchers and professionals in this field, I could say that capitalism does not only reinforce but actually generates inequality. Yes, it is true that capitalism provides job opportunities to individuals but only to those who are privilege and has enough qualifications which further widens the gap of the rich and the poor causing inequality. In addition, those employees working for companies owned by capitalists are prone to experiencing unfair treatment since they are not given the right salaries and benefits the company should give them.
Has globalization increased, or decreased, global poverty?
Globalization as we all know is the spread of products, technology, information, and jobs across national borders and cultures. With this, we can clearly see that this globalization helped decrease global poverty. Economic growth is the main channel through which globalization can affect poverty. So when countries open up to trade, they tend to grow faster and living standards tend to increase, which makes the country less poorer. But given these circumstances, globalization can also increase poverty. This is because companies of a certain country often hire employees that only met the global standards which makes it really unfair for individuals that belongs to the lower class. Instead of benefiting from this so called economic growth, these individuals are rob of their opportunities which makes them lose hope.
Resources:
Chen, J. (2020). Poverty. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poverty.asp
Hodgson, G.M. (n.d). How Capitalism Actually Generates More Inequality. Retrieved from https://evonomics.com/how-capitalism-actually-generates-more-inequality/
Wade, R. (2004). Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality? Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X04000075
