The Factors That Affect Ones Chances of Experiencing Poverty during Ones Lifetime - Essay Example

The Factors That Affect One’s Chances of Experiencing Poverty During One’s Lifetime: A Critical Review The Factors That Affect One’s Chances of Experiencing Poverty During One’s Lifetime: A Critical Review There are many different issues that need to be taken seriously into consideration when it comes to an issue such as the factors that affect a person’s chances of experiencing poverty in their lifetime, and as well, there are many different perspectives that need to be included in this matter, in order to come to the most accepting and accurate conclusion. There is truly a multitude of different factors that affect the chances of them experiencing poverty during their lifetime, and some of the most major factors have to do with the parents’ culture, such as their marriage, work, and religion, for instance. Furthermore, statistics and studies have shown that unfortunately the children that grow up with parents who are married, working, and religious, are also more likely to face experiencing poverty as adults. Obviously this is a very important and critical matter, and this is why it is so important to make sure that every issue within this matter is discussed thoroughly and properly. There are many different perspectives that will be taken on this issue as well, and that includes New Right, Liberal, and Feminist, as each of these is incredibly important in its own right and thus needs to be included in the standpoint in regards to this subject matter. This is what will be dissertated in the following. Poverty is a very serious issue, and in order to be able to find out how it applies itself, we truly must determine as to where it actually begins, and the quite obvious answer to that would be in childhood. After all, things that take place during childhood tend to carry on throughout a person’s life, and so this explains quite well as to why issues that took place during one’s childhood would highly affect their chances of experiencing poverty later on in their life. One of the most apparent factors of all is the living environment for children, as when children are living in an unstable environment the family is that much less likely to have stable income of money, and thus the children are more susceptible to living in poverty. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988, we see that “eighth graders who were living apart from their biological fathers had an expected poverty rate of 16.6 percent when they were twenty-five. In contrast, the poverty rate for eighth graders who were living with their fathers was 9.9 percent” (The Future of Children, 2007). Therefore, we can quite clearly see from this that there is an incredibly powerful association that is evident between children growing up without their fathers and then ending up living in poverty as a child and growing up to be poor as an adult. One of the most logical and in fact proven explanations is because the father is typically the major breadwinner in a family, meaning that if the father is absent from the home, there will obviously be much less money, and sometimes the father’s income was the only possible income either because the mother can’t work due to her having to look after the children, a disability, or some other reason. Although the same generally applies when a mother is absent from the home, the difference is astounding, as the fact of the father not being present in the house affects the situation an incredible amount more than if the mother is not there. However we should also make note of the fact that this contribution of the father’s absence to the overall poverty in the next generation of the family depends on more than just the difference in the poverty rates themselves, as it also greatly depends on that of the relative size of the two groups of children. Going back to the data from the 1988 study, we can see that “28 percent of eighth graders were living apart from their biological fathers and 72 percent were living with their fathers. To determine the contribution of each group of children to the overall poverty population in the next generation, we multiply the proportion of children in each family type by the poverty rate for each group by the total number of children in the population” (The Future of Children, 2007). Another issue that is considered as being quite major when it comes to discussing the matter of the factors that are most likely to increase one’s chances of experiencing poverty in one’s lifetime is that of adolescent childbearing. Basically, the younger a person is when they have a child, the less likely they are going to be to be able to set up a decent home life and make a proper amount of money, and so thus they are most likely going to be raising their children somewhat in poverty to begin with, especially if they are a single parent, and even more so if they are a single mother, and this in turn will increase the child’s odds of living in poverty once they are an adult. Therefore, studies have shown that if a family is together with the parents still married and both the parents are making a substantial or even at least decent amount of money, then the family will be less likely to be living in poverty and thus the children will be less likely to carry poverty on throughout the rest of their lives, and will in fact be much more likely to create the same type of positive living environment for their own family once they are an adult. Basically, if a child is shown a particular type of life setting – in this case money being the key issue – then they are going to get used to that, and understand how positive it is, and be that much more likely to want to create the same type of positive lifestyle and living situation for themselves and their future children. Poverty runs in a very vicious cycle, and it is a cycle which is incredibly hard to break out of, especially if you do not have the proper help and assistance. There is a global assumption that poor health leads to low productivity, which in turn would lead to less financial income, however this is not completely true. After all, “There are other things affecting low productivity than poor health and inadequate diet. The factors we believe are the causes of poverty are not as simple as the model implies…and…the factors behind the situation of poverty the individual is in, are on a higher level than what the model suggests” (Eriksson, 1995). When speaking of ‘the model’, we are referring to what is considered as being the model of the cycle of poverty, and although this model has always been around, it has changed somewhat over the years, and this is thus incredibly important to take into consideration. There are many different reasons as to why this model of the vicious state of poverty has been changed, and for one, this is because the actual situation of poverty is much more complex now than it used to be, and so thus the model needs to be changed and updated in order to suit this appropriately. As well, as a result of much field work and literature studies, this changed circle of poverty has now included many different factors that affect the person’s life as well as their chances of experiencing poverty in their lifetime. Educational factors are another incredibly major contributing factor in regards to the possibility of someone experiencing poverty in their lifetime, and so thus they need to be taken incredibly seriously into consideration as well. After all, “An extremely important context, however, for a discussion of poverty is that part of production which takes place outside the formal sector, much of which is characterized by self-employment in rural and peri-urban areas. There has therefore been much interest in examining the extent to which education affects production patterns in those activities. It has been shown that primary schooling, for example, helps to increase the productivity of peasant farmers, particularly when they have access to the other inputs needed to enhance their production” (Oxaal, 1997). There is also the matter of Human Capital Theory that is very relevant here, as it draws serious links between that of education and poverty, especially so in terms of education as a means of poverty reduction, and another particularly significant linkage in this regards refers to that of the effect of macro- and micro-level poverty on levels of education. “At the macro-level, it is generally the case that levels of enrolment correlate with GNP. Countries with low per capita incomes tend to have low enrolment ratios. However there are a number of exceptions to this rule. In Africa, for example, extremely poor countries such as Lesotho, Madagascar and Togo have primary gross enrolment ratios in excess of 100” (Oxaal, 1997). Educational factors are incredibly important, because the less education a person has regardless of their age, then the more likely they are to experience poverty at least once during their lifetime. However on the other hand then of course, the more education one has, the more likely they are to live a comfortable life in regards to their finances, and of course then the less likely they are to experience poverty during their lifetime. There are many different linkages between poverty and education, and basically these linkages “can be understood in two ways: Investment in education as a poverty reduction strategy which can enhance the skills and productivity among poor households; Poverty as a constraint to educational achievement both at the macro-level (poor countries generally have lower levels of enrolment) and the micro-level (children of poor households receive less education)” (Oxaal, 1997). Thus from this we can see not only that educational factors are very important in this regards but also that poverty is very gender oriented, as for the most part – and this internationally speaking, and not only in regards to the United States – females are given less opportunity to be able to make a substantial amount of money, and thus they are more likely to experience poverty during some point in their lifetime. When we include different perspectives on this issue, with the main ones being New Right, Liberalist, and Feminist, we can see that without a doubt the Feminist perspective is the strongest, and this is primarily due to the fact that there is an increasing female proportion of the population on low incomes or in poverty, and as well because changes in social policy, the structure of the family and the workplace for instance, and life expectancy, have had the basically completely unintended result of rather dramatically increasing the female proportion of the population on low incomes or living in poverty. Due to these unfortunate statistics, we can thus clearly see why the Feminist point of view is so severely important and in fact crucial overall, and this is why it is so crucial to take this seriously into consideration when discussing a matter such as this. After all, the feminization of poverty is really an international trend, even though it is most evident and most advanced in America, and so it must be looked at in this way, rather than narrowed down and considered as being only present in one or two parts of the world, because this is certainly not true at all. It should also be known that “The term feminization of poverty was coined to capture the increasing rates of poverty among mother-only families. More recently, it has been used to draw attention to the failure of men to provide support for their former wives by emphasizing the enforcement of child-support legislation…as well…the focus on this legislation has overlooked the needs of the most vulnerable families” (Franklin, 1992). Although the feminization of poverty was actually most pronounced from the year 1959 to the year 1978, it has as of recently become the most noted and the most serious, and this is why the discussion of an issue such as what the contributing factors are to poverty is so critical. When we take the New Right perspective on this matter, we can see that there is more of a belief that poverty is caused by certain social inequalities that are built into the structure of society. Basically this goes to say that in regards to the New Right perspective, social inequalities are considered as being the most major factor in regards to the chances of someone experiencing poverty in their lifetime, and so thus this is the issue that needs to be most thoroughly addressed and discussed. Overall, in conclusion from this discussion we can see many things that are of incredible importance. For instance, we can conclude the fact that poverty includes many different matters, and also that there are many different factors that are considered as being able to affect one’s chances of experiencing poverty during one’s lifetime. Thus, in order for a person to be able to try and avoid going through poverty as much as they can they would have to take note of and thoroughly understand all of these factors, and then try to keep themselves free of these factors as much as they possibly can. However we have also seen that this is not necessarily possible, as many of the factors that contribute to the odds of experiencing poverty take place during childhood, and so thus it is basically impossible for a person to be able to avoid those particular factors. We have been able to take note of the most major factors, such as religious, environmental, and educational factors for instance, and how all of them affect the chances of someone experiencing poverty in their lifetime and these factors are absolutely critical in regards to this overall situation as well. Therefore, although no one can absolutely and fully avoid this, there are definitely certain things that can be done in order to avoid it as much as possible, and so if you want to steer clear of going through poverty at some point in your life – and everyone does – then you are going to want to make sure that you are aware of this. It is very important for everyone to fully and completely understand the vicious cycle of poverty, as well as for them to be able to understand the other factors that are evident in this situation, in order to be able to come to a proper and knowledgeable conclusion overall. Then, once that is accomplished, one is then able to work on how they can try to avoid the factors that affect one’s chancing of experiencing poverty during one’s lifetime as best as they can. In return for this, because of their understanding and knowledge of such factors, they will thus be able to more successfully find ways to avoid these such factors and thus remain free from the experience of poverty as best as they can. References Brenner, J. (1987). Feminist Political Discourses: Radical Versus Liberal Approaches to the Feminization of Poverty and Comparable Worth. Gender & Society, 1(4), 447-465. Eckstein, S. (1979). The Poverty of Revolution: The State and the Urban Pool in Mexico. Journal of Latin American Studies, 11(2), 386-389. Eriksson, V. (1995). The Vicious Circle of Poverty – A Gender-Aware Approach. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://home.swipnet.se/~w-18076/sida5ram.htm Franklin, D. L. (1992). Feminization of Poverty and African-American Families: Illusions and Realities. Affilia, 7(2), 142-155. Fukuda-Parr, S. (1999). What Does Feminization of Poverty Mean? It Isn’t Just Lack of Income. Feminist Economics, 5(2), 99-103. The Future of the Children. (2007). “Culture” and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: The Prevention Paradox. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=392810 Hayes, C. (1987). Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=945&page=1 Northrop, E. (1994). A Contrast of Black and White Feminization of Poverty. Eastern Economic Journal, 20(4), 465-470. Oxaal, Z. (1997). Education and Poverty: A Gender Analysis. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:LnKNTb0WmiEJ:www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re53.pdf+educational+factors+on+poverty&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1 Sarvasy, W., & Vanallen, J. (1984). Fighting the Feminization of Poverty: Socialist-Feminist Analysis and Strategy. Review of Radical Political Economics, 16(4), 89-110. Read More