Global Poverty

Poverty is an issue that affects millions of Americans and even more worldwide. Poverty is defined as the state of not having enough money to take care of basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing. According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children. There are three different sets of numbers that determine if someone is at the poverty level or not. The first set of number is for those living in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The other two sets of numbers are for Hawaii and Alaska. In August 2008, the World Bank changed the international poverty line to $1.25 a day from $1.00. At the poverty line of $1.25 it is estimated that 1.4 billion people live at this poverty line or below. Poverty can be seen predominantly in third-world countries where more developed countries seem to do a better job at hiding there problem. Unfortunately, those who live at or under the poverty level have to deal with the lack of things most people take for granted.  Given this information, it is not hard to believe that the wealthiest 20% of the world’s population consumes 76.6% of the world’s goods while 80% of humanity gets the remainder (1). In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China (1). Literacy is another problem that goes hand in hand with poverty. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. In a world where it is nearly essential to be able to sign your name on a document for income it is important to be literate in order to get out of poverty.

The socialization process is the process in which people adapt to their surroundings and acquire the social class and beliefs of those around them. This is one of the reasons why I think many stay in the situation that they are in. Obviously, there are many factors that contribute to those that stay in poverty but I think it makes it harder for those who have gone through the socialization process because poverty is the only thing they, and the people around them, know. People start the socialization process with an ascribed status, they are born into it, which lends the hand that being born into poverty not only makes it hard on the individual but on the family and community who are going to have to support that individual with the limited resources they have. Those who live in poverty typically rely on a nonmaterial culture to keep them motivated. Things such as beliefs, customs, ideas, and languages are examples of what keeps a nonmaterial culture striving.  Since material goods are seen as high luxury items to those in poverty they must depend on things such as religion and the support of others in their situation to make them feel like they have a purpose. 

 For those living in poverty who have jobs, there is little or no occupational mobility. The types of occupations that are held by those living in poverty are agricultural jobs and others like it with a fixed income. People living in poverty do not usually have the resources to find better jobs or to be higher paid within the one their already working in. Those who are living in poverty constantly deal with both social and institutional discrimination. In India, there is a caste system and so those who born into the Pariah group are known their as outcastes, or "untouchables". These people face social discrimination from those in other classes by not being even given the esteem to be able to associate or talk to them. The slums that the Pariah group live in and their type of lifestyle can be seen in the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire”. Those who live in poverty also face institutional discrimination in areas such as health care, education and housing. For example, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005 and 57 percent of them were girls (1). In Afghanistan, it is forbidden by law for girls to go to school. Hopefully this changes, but for now girls and others living in poverty have to deal with an extreme amount of setbacks before they can consider themselves equal to those in other classes. 

References

1.      http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats