Images Of The Extreme Poverty - Essay Example

Images of the extreme poverty and the formation of the welfare attitude in relation to it s Nowadays, the world faced such problems as low life level and poverty. The aim of this work is to analyze the concept of poverty and the formation of the welfare attitude in relation to it, according to Rose’s ABCDE model. Poverty is a condition, in which there is a discrepancy between the achieved average level of satisfaction of the person’s needs and their capability. It is characterized by underdevelopment of the possibilities, striving to meet the material needs at the expense of the spiritual ones, breaching social ties. This leads to the low material status of certain groups of people, changing their system of values, forming a special social world and its culture (subculture of poverty), and lifestyle, dissonant with common one, that is a threat to the normal functioning of the society. The concept of wealth and poverty is relative. For example, people, who are not financially secure, can be rich in spirit. Disagreement over the definition of poverty affects not only its essence, but also causes, the consequences and solutions of the problem. , P. Townsend in his report on poverty, conducted in 1960-1970s., in the UK gave the definition of this concept. It is stated that, individuals, families and communities live in poverty, if they do not have enough money for food, and do not hold the same activity as the majority of the population. To the underclass can be referred not only the most disadvantaged sectors of society, but also all citizens living below the poverty line, as well as those whose income does not exceed the half of the salary of any average industrial full-time worker. Poverty is a social phenomenon, which attracts a lot of discussions and can be viewed from different angles. Every day we face people, who stand in the streets, near the shops or inside the passages, begging for money and food. The reaction of society in relation to this problem is various. Some people feel aversion and disgust, others sympathy and compassion. There are different theoretical propositions as for the investigation of this issue. First of all, it is important to consider poverty as the social phenomenon and analyze its types as well as the reasons of its emergence. The issue of poverty of the population is the main worldwide topic for discussion. Each state sooner or later faces the similar challenges and looks for ways out of the situation. Poverty in a global sense is a condition caused by lack of material resources for normal life of much of the population on the planet. Today, the problem of poverty is studied by the professionals, who try to identify it as different groups and find a solution for each of them separately. For the first group belong the families of employees who have low wages. This group includes people, who live in rural areas and small towns, together with the unemployed ones. To the second group belong single pensioners, who are not able to work fully or part time, because of the health problems. The third group constitutes the disabled people and families, single-parent families or the ones with many children and so forth. These are the main types of poverty. The reasons of its emergence are quite various. Low income is the result of diverse and interrelated reasons, which are combined into the following groups: economic (unemployment, low wages and productivity, lack of competitiveness of the industry); socio-medical (disability, old age, high incidence); demographic (single-parent families, a large number of dependents in the family); educational qualification (low levels of education, lack of training); political (military conflicts, forced migration); regional-geographic (uneven regional development); religious, philosophical and psychological (asceticism as a way of life, foolishness); The work is concentrated on the case study method and includes the analysis of the welfare contingent as well. This kind of people stand in contrast with the content of poverty. Welfare is the security of the population of the state, social group, class, or family, in terms of material, social and spiritual benefits. Welfare is directly dependent on the level of development of productive forces of the state and the nature of economic relations. The higher the level of the development of productive forces is, the faster is the increase of welfare. It is associated with the effectiveness of social and economic policy in a particular society. The deepest split of the population is stated in the division between rich and poor. This conclusion was made by sociologists. The idea is reflected in the fact, that people see themselves as one nation, holding the same lifestyle. In other words, the social stratification of people cannot be too deep. When it reaches a dangerous level, the separated social communities begin to diverge on different roads and acquire the features of different nations. Ethnicization of social groups is an important aspect of the political process. The similarity in the material standards of living leads to the unity of cultures and ideologies, relationships of the people and states, as well as the moral norms. On the contrary, the occurrence of sharp differences between some groups in terms of financial position divides them into various social strata. Christianity has determined that people are equal as children of God, "brothers in Christ." Hence the "men are brothers" - as a denial of the pagan (Roman) "men are wolves" Orthodoxy stands firm on this theory, but social interest has spawned a rich ideology, according to which the human race is not united, but divided in their views. Racism was invented in order to justify the slavery and robbery. The social philosophy of the West changed the concept of "race of the poor" into "rich race". Workers are also considered as a special race. The main function of the West market was to adjust the size of this race by means of salary. It predetermined the emergence of social racism. The statistics informs that the level of poverty in the world increased for the 2013. The poorest countries are: Niger, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Burgundy. The level of life in these countries is lower than the standards accepted in the world. These countries face the compassion from other states, but their material status is not supported by the governments or any other institutions, which can provide its improvement. The use of a common income parameters often leads to paradoxical situations, for example, when retirees who own fully paid real estate (home or land, the payment of which took them 20 years) fall into the category of the poor. Today, the cost of industrial products is very low, which made possible for people of any material status to buy such goods as television, computer or mobile phone. At the same time, the cost of services and rents for housing is high. Sociologists today have a number of alternative definitions of poverty and the most common are: the inability to obtain or have access to a basic basket of services. This list of services is different for each state. For example, in the United States it includes health insurance, in the UK - a bank account, where medical care is covered by the state. Nowadays, the leaders of different countries have a task to decrease the level of poverty in the world. The methods of the achievement of this purpose are concentrated in the strategies applied by the governments. The most important factor in solving the problem of poverty is the economic growth, because it leads to the increase of the gross national income, which is formed due to the consumption fund. However, it is possible to maintain the same poverty against the background of a decent economic growth (like in Nigeria, where in 1990-2003s the GDP grew on average by 2.9% per year). It was predetermined by the rapid growth of the population (2.6%). The example of Nigeria shows us that the economic growth can be achieved by a small group of industries with low labor demand (energy in Nigeria). At the same time the important factor in the fight against poverty is government’s assistance to the poor, although it leads to the increase in poverty alleviation, but not to its solution. The experience of the developed countries states that governmental aid may increase the so-called “chronic poverty” in that part of the working-age population, who are desperate to find a job and therefore psychologically focused only on the state aid. Consequently, targeted benefits to the poor should be accompanied by a set of socio-economic measures aimed at their integration into the labor market (training and retraining, assistance in finding jobs and so forth). The problem increases on the strength of the fact that the developing countries do not yet have sufficient opportunities to alleviate poverty due to the low incomes. To eliminate the problem of poverty, world economy requires broad international support. This issue receives the increasing attention from the international community. In 2000, the heads of governments of 180 countries in the world have signed the so-called Millennium Declaration identified eight key challenges of global development for the period up to 2015, and called on the international economic organizations to focus their aid programs in order to fulfill them. The first point among these problems is the reduction of the half of people who live on less than 1 dollar per day by 2015. Among other governmental measures for reduction of poverty there are: creating the conditions for growth of production and, accordingly, the income of the population; maintaining of macroeconomic stability; conducting anti-inflationary policy; establishment of a minimum wage; development of social programs and mechanisms and their implementation; I watched the image of poverty on poor streets, where people beg for the food, money and clothes. Some of them, even those, who are of old age, stand there from early morning, till night. One woman sat every day on her knees near the church, asking for food. My first feelings were compassion and willing to help her. It seemed, that she had a terribly difficult fate. The surrounding people behaved in a regular way, passing silently. Some of them stood near and watched, others gave her money. The most unpleasant thing was that the majority of people showed indifference in relation to the poverty of the old woman. No one tried to help or suggest support. There were also individuals, who looked at her with a kind of disgust. I did not like the picture, which I observed. Different positions of people in the society predetermined the appearance of the gap between them. The negative feelings of people, caused by the image of poverty are understandable and at the same time negotiable. The phenomenon of poverty in the modern society is represented as the shameful and repelling event. Poor people accept bad relation towards them from those, who possess high material status. The questions of spiritual wealth took the second place in the list of modern world standards. The reduction of poverty due to the insertion of the political reforms will not eliminate the material segregation, but reduce its level. The analysis of poverty and its place in the society helped us to watch the contradiction between rich and poor people. In conclusion, it is important to state the fact that the ideology of poverty is perceived by the people of the modern society as the natural event. The neglect of the poor people, by those, who are wealthy and prosperous, enables the society to see the gap, which was formed by the economic changes of the last years. It has increased in several times and brought the extreme division between the social strata. People of modern society lack the patience in relation to those, who faced “bad times”. It is important to remember that anyone can meet poverty, which does not always depend upon the person’s working skills, that is why we need to be tolerant with the people of all levels and statuses. “There are many people in the world who believe that the provisions of charity are in the present day so generous and varied that no one need suffer; but even if this were true it would not materially lessen the sorrow of the poor” (Hunter, R., 1905, 2). References Hunter, Robert, Poverty, The Macmillan Company, London, 1905. Read More