Families in Poverty Social Problem - Assignment Example

FAMILIES IN POVERTY Assignment 2c Social stratification is shown to have various factors that explain poverty and these include economic growth, race, gender, class and culture among others. The two; social stratification as well as poverty are issues that almost every country faces. In a simplified manner, social stratification explains how people within a society are ranked on the basis of amount of money, type of school attended to, power as well as health. Among the various factors outlined above to explain poverty, class appears as the most influential and important among the rest. The social class here implies the position that a person of group of people occupies within a structured inequality system and this is based on inequality in wealth distribution, power income as well as status. These factors influence on an individual’s chances or opportunities in life. When individuals are restricted on matters of resources and matters of survival in life right after birth, then one is said to live in poverty (although the degree differs). Besides, the class system explains the social inequality, which regards the variations by persons on matters of wealth, power or prestige. People is the ‘poor’ class are defined by inability to meet some or all basic needs with the difference being defined on absolute or relative terms of poverty (Payne, 2001). Whereas all the above factors contribute or explain poverty, individual persons have t take blame on poverty. It is often perceived that poverty dominates within particular families and social stratified groups because of lack of resources and or power. Therefore, when individuals fail to embrace the art or science of creating wealth, then they bear the blame for escalating poverty rates within the society. Humans are also to blame on unequal distribution of resources through which others would create wealth and therefore carry higher blame as against the social infrastructure and systems of governance. The governments are often perceived as the main custodians of factors of productions or economic resources. However, the ‘haves’ are equally shown to control the larger share of means of production and this positions them at the point where they should equally take responsibility of the poor (have not’s). In the American context, the reputation of being developed but yet having the greater population live in poverty or near the poverty line is contradicting. The definition should suit any country which majority (if not all) the citizens are away from poverty and as such can afford basic needs. The cut-off point in defining developed countries should be in the capacity for the sovereign state to ensure that citizen affords basic living and thus be above poverty line. Payne (2001) discusses various hidden rules regarding time and money and one that stands out among the rest is the rule on money, which according to the poor, it is to be spent but for the middle class, it is meant for management. Besides, the wealthy perceives money as basic for preservation and or invested. This is therefore a golden rule through which one would understand the whole concept of poverty within a society. These rules are paramount and more so to the middle class because, this class forms he pivot point in understanding poverty or wealth. When the middle class people fail to appreciate efforts in creation of wealth, then they fall into the category of the poor while when they embrace saving and investment culture, then they assume wealth status. The biggest challenge in getting out of poverty is therefore the capacity to differentiate the use of money; for expenditure, for management and or for expenditure/saving. Assignment 3a From the global issues organization websites, shocking revelations of statistics and facts on poverty are outline among which being the tenth fact that approximately, half of all human population currently living suffers water problems (Shah, 2007). This fact is quite shocking in the understanding that water is a basic need not only for survival but also for human development this therefore implies that basic sanitation and access to clean drinking water contributes greatly towards the overall global poverty levels. It is much shocking to realize how many lives are lost through diseases associated with water, hours lost while in search of water by women and the many school days that are lost by students while in search of clean water. These are only some of the indications on how many in terms of resources get wasted and which would be used differently for economic gain and this would help alleviate poverty levels. In international comparisons, third world countries lag even more in terms o accessing clean water and proper sanitation while compared to the developed countries and this explains largely poverty levels that are much pronounced within these countries. From the poverty quiz, it is clear that all humans have the right to meeting basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, social services and basic health services. However, disparity is evident in how people access these services as dictated by gender, social class, nationality (developed and or developing), age and power. By scoring 40% in the quiz indicates that much of the poverty facts were unknown to me and this shows that much needs t be understood on global facts on poverty. From the class readings, America lags in poverty levels (both relative and absolute) while compared to all other rich countries. This can largely be attributed to social stratification which is well espoused within the US as against in such other rich countries. Social inclusion within most of the other countries has contributed greatly towards alleviating poverty levels. Whenever the majority of citizens fall far below poverty line, the entire society is classified as lagging behind and this explains the position of US. In order to have poverty reduced within the country, it is necessary that the policy of inclusion is adopted as is the case with such other developed countries. Shah Anup wrote an article titled ‘Solving World Hunger Means Solving World Poverty’, which shows that poverty, and hunger issues are related. People are quoted as believing that when the problem of hunger is addressed, then poverty is addressed. As much as poverty is understood as an economic issue, the lack of capacity to meet the most basic of all human needs (food) explains poverty more. Hunger results from poor economic and political policies and this contributes to increased poverty. This therefore shows that effectiveness and success in solving poverty related challenges depends much on the capacity to eradicate hunger. In fact, it is shown that failure to address hunger as major cause to poverty may not yield the desired result of food security even with increased food production and such other policies. In comparing countries, hunger is propagated through colonization, low pay in developing countries as well as production for export within these developing countries as against production for domestic purposes. The relation is therefore clear that efforts to solve world hunger contribute positively towards eradicating poverty (Shah, 2007). . Assignment 3b It is worth noting that while many people confuse the poor farmers for being problematic and adding to the figure of persons living in poverty, they are significantly part of the global solution to poverty. This is because, with much facilitation of these farmers, they would raise food production levels thus supplying to their needs and having surplus for sale. From the article ‘third word debts undermines development’ there are three main factors that are blamed on causing debt crises and they include colonialism legacy, odious debt as well as mismanaged lending and spending by the west in the 60s and 70s. Majority of developing countries continue to pay on debts that were advanced to these countries during colonialism and whose interest rates were unjustifiably high. For the case of odious debts, past regimes of dictatorial leadership led developing nations into incurring unnecessary debts from the west, who would in return siphon much of the resources in these countries for their own benefit. I therefore agree with the concept of relieving or forgiving the heavily indebted countries of these debts as have been advanced by other countries. This is because, continued collection of these debts which increasingly attracts higher interest rates takes more of the countries’ resources as against assisting them overcome poverty as would have been the initial purpose of the loans and grants. From the movie ‘the luckiest nut in the world’ (James, 2002) the economics of free market works o the advantage of the US farmers who tend to be treated differently as compared to the rest of the world nut farmers. This is because the American nuts are highly subsidized and highly protected by trade tariffs, which is not the case with other countries. In the initial stages of development of the nuts industry and market, the free market economics promised great gains from nuts through large market and fair prices. This led to many developing countries taking up loans to develop the industry after which the market failed to live to the promise. This has therefore led to these countries get into huge debts that the industry cannot surface hence the trail in poverty. From the movie ‘slum survivors’ it is surprising to learn that life is unbearably hard with women taking the lead in catering for their families while men indulge in crime and all bad living without a hope for long life. High risks of HIV and Aids infection and crime cause many underage deaths within slums though with little means of saving the millions living there. Carol faces many challenges among which are; lack of support for upkeep of her family but she strives daily to look for casual labor from the surrounding settlement for the family upkeep. Dennis on the other hand has had to brave life in crime for survival which he is easily trying to overcome through venturing into a lesser riskier occupation of logging from a near forest. Though it is risky, he counts it lesser risky as compared to the previous occupation in robbery. Mburu equally has lots of challenges to brave while surviving in the slum among which is lack of job due to low education. However, hard work has made him get an easy way of survival through emptying of toilets, which according to him is sufficient for his family upkeep and to help him avoid life in crime (Davis, 2007). According to the video ‘breaking through poverty with microfinance’, it is clear that microfinance works through crediting small businesses for starting, sustaining and expanding them. Having been used and proven effective, micro financing is credited as the most effective tool in overcoming poverty while compared to the rest because credit is perceived as the main challenge to majority of the poor people. The target is mainly on women due because they are perceived as the most disadvantaged and largely the most depended upon by many families. Jeffrey Sachs reasons that it is possible to end poverty in the world through empowering the poor (Fora Tv 2008). I would certainly agree with him over the claim because poverty has majorly been propagated by lack of empowerment for the larger segment of the poor. With proper structural adjustment and proper policy design, it is undoubtedly possible to empower the poor from the poverty issue. Assignment 4D Criminalization of the homeless is in itself very bad and must be condemned because being without a place to live, is not itself a crime (Burt, Aron, Lee & Valente 2001). By placing restrictions to the homeless pertaining to converging and eating in public is harmful because they should equally enjoy the freedom of living within sovereign states. However, it is most unfortunate that this is increasingly facing approval within many states. States have an alternative of embracing policies that would reduce such incidences of homelessness through efforts to have people access cheap and affordable housing facilities through influencing the housing market. This would reduce the rampant increase in homelessness and thus overcome the perceived crime. Religious based institutions have come to the rescue of the situation and may become the best in addressing the issue as against focusing on government intervention. However, the government has the responsibility of encouraging the religious institutions in these efforts. For instance, the cost of running a children center is significantly very high as would be explained by cost of food, maintaining the facility in repairs and providing basic amenities, hiring employees and keeping up with the rising number of needy cases seeking for these services. The government should therefore support these efforts through subsidizing food and drugs for such institutions, offering donations or some sort of sponsorship to the children and putting into place regulations that would discourage the increase in parental negligence in the country. With states that the government is more firm with parenting laws, the cases of homelessness among the children is relatively low while compared to other states. Non-stringent laws in New York have led to rampant rise in homelessness and when compared to Los Angeles, then the LA appears to be better footed in the analysis (Burt, Aron, Lee & Valente 2001). The issues of homelessness may be solved through a variety of tools among which being effective and appropriate policy frameworks, government intervention in housing markets and reduce criminalization of lack of houses. When government intervenes in the markets, affordable and cheap houses would be available hence reducing the people in the situation of lack of such houses. Besides, the government policies should encourage efforts by religious institutions to have safe places for accommodation of homeless people. As a run-away youth, one can seek assistance from religious institutions, children homes or in the homes of interested well-wishers who would agree in hosting them. In many of the state, religious institutions such as churches have facilities that are specifically meant for the less fortunate in the society such as orphans and street children. Renowned personalities have also gone ahead and started facilities that target the needy in the society especially in matters of education and these too could be safe havens for the homeless runaway children. When a child runs away from home, the feeling may be very frustrating especially when you run to the aid of your parent who mistreats you. Frustration may cause an individual to indulge in crime and or into prostitution. These are social vices and which in all means would rise the well being of a child and violate his/her rights in belonging and getting basics to life among which is food, shelter as well as clothing. However if one would land in safe hands of a guardian of company, it is possible to rise back on the feet. To address the challenges facing the Americans in ensuring they remain healthy, some organizations have been on the forefront and they include: a) Feeding America;- Tis organization assist in collection, transportation and delivery of food donations from different persons, industries or organizations across United States of America b) Heartland Alliance:- This organizations helps the poor and marginalized through legal assistance as well as provision of housing c) Salvation Army:- This organizations offers assistance to American citizens especially during disasters Assignment 4E Getting money from the government as welfare kitties for the poor in the society may sound an excellent idea but a close scrutiny into the idea reveals much of problem creation than solution finding. The welfare regime that has been is criticized on the basis of various positions among which are that the system fails to encourage individuals to work and that it contributes little towards eradication of poverty especially to children. Getting the ‘free’ money from the government in form of welfare tokens downplays efforts to eradicate poverty in that the poor keep waiting for these tokens and majority more falls into the category of the poor in anticipation of benefiting from these tokens. The idea sound retrogressive in that governments should adopt more appropriate policies to encourage hard work and creation of wealth as against waiting for the welfare funding. The state also lacks flexibility in addressing the concerns of increase poverty levels and therefore, in as much as the initial idea appears brilliant, the outcomes fail to live to the expectations. In fact, the welfare policy hurts families than helping them through family breakups and child birth out of wedlock. Individual states were empowered through the 1996 PRWORA act to set own autonomy rules for eligibility in work, income, time and family (Paveti & Wemmerus, 1999). However, it is appreciated that each of these rules has associated advantages and disadvantages. For instance, in Florida, eligibility for temporary-cash assistance is dependent of age (time limits), where an adult is only eligible for 48 hours lifetime but a child has no time limit. This has the advantage of discouraging overdependence on the assistance by the adults while it may encourage overdependence by the minors. Concerning working activities, the rules are definite on some people to work on mandatory terms unless they an exemption is placed on them. This may encourage hard work and increased productivity while at the same time having the disadvantage that others would be lack personal drive to work and thus rely on coercion. On income limits, beneficiaries are required to fall below 185% federal poverty level on family countable income. This has the advantage of assisting only the neediest cases while the advantage would be that other people may entertain failure to work in order to be eligible. On family caps, the Florida rules require that the beneficiary children have blood relation with the guardian (parent) in whose home he/she lives. The main advantage in this is to avoid double benefits or dishonest gains by unreal parents while the disadvantage would be that in the case of orphaned children, then they may not benefit. One would wonder how possible it is for one to live on $8 or $9 an hour as many of the Americans have known over years to live and depend on low wage occupations. I highly believe that although the amount would justifiably appear little, proper management would translate into managing living on such margins as would be surfaced by the amounts. Right from the position of waiter (server) or working from a warehouse the choice of what to eat, where to live, dressing and leisure activities can be managed with proper management of the little gotten just as those earning more would. The question on whether then one can afford to have regular medical checks, pet clinics and whether one can afford an ice-cream for friend and a kid depends on the capacity of the person to prioritize among these needs. From a personal point, while I earn little, then I would attend to priorities first which are mainly the basic needs and latter on the luxury or secondary wants. As a matter of fact, no amount of wage rate would suffice all human wants and as such, right from the meager earnings that a person would be earning, proper planning and prioritization would enable one live comfortably although not at such standards as the affluent in the society would be living at. While reforming the welfare policy within many governments has the capacity to institutionalize many of the vices that arise with the welfare policy as discussed above, there may lack an absolute reform mechanism that would be without effects at all. This is because; all the policies would have associated benefits and repercussions. For instance, while reforming the welfare policy on free prenatal and postnatal care for the poor may reduce increased rates of teenage pregnancies, it may not reduce sexual activity by such teenage but rather contribute towards higher rates of abortions and use of contraceptives. My recommendation would be on improved welfare policy on job creation for the poor as against free governmental tokens, which largely influence many to fall in the ‘poor’ category while eying such tokens. Proper facilitation of these policies is equally paramount for effectiveness of these policies to be realized. Besides, the system of increased urban poverty would be addressed through the system policy of encouraging urban-rural migration to ease population pressures within urban areas and encourage rural development. References Burt, M., Aron, L., Lee, E., & Valente (2001). Helping America's homeless: Emergency shelter or affordable housing. Chapter One. New York: Urban Institute Press. Davis, M. (2007). GLOBAL: Slum Survivors - reality in Nairobi's Kibera. Retrieved from: http://www.irinnews.org/report/74950/global-slum-survivors-reality-in-nairobi-s-kibera Fora Tv (2008), Three Challenges for the Planet - Jeffrey Sachs. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH5Pe2AYvvE&feature=related James, E. (2002). The Luckiest Nut In The World, Fulcrum TV Paveti, L., & Wemmerus, N. (1999). From a welfare check to a paycheck: Creating a new social contract. Journal of Labor Research, 20(4), 517-537. Payne, R. K. (2001). A framework for understanding poverty. (3rd Ed.). Baytown, TX: RFT Publishing. Shah, A. (2007). Poverty around the World, and Globalissues.org, Last updated: Thursday, February 15, 2007 Read More