Poverty can be defined as the state of lacking or not having the ways of getting the basic human wants like food, shelter, education, clothing, good health care and clean water. It can also be defined as the state of possessing less resources and income than other people in the community, country, or even in the comparison with worldwide averages. Currently almost half of the people living in the world, that is, approximately more than three billion people survive on less than $2.50 in a day; this means that an estimation of 80 percent of the population in the world today spends each day with less than $10. About 24,000 children who live in most of the poorest localities in the world are losing life everyday as a result of poverty this is according to the report given by UNICEF.
According to the research done in the united Nation it is estimated that approximately 25,000 people across the world die of hunger and hunger related diseases everyday that is to mean that in every three and a half seconds one person loses life. In the developing countries about 27-28 percent of children are approximated to be emaciated or stunted. In the 21st century almost one billion people began the century being illiterate due to lack of finances to pay for education (Wesley, 2002, p.325).
Poverty has continuously been there in the rich and poor nations, the gap between the poor and the well-off people is increasingly widening. The causes of poverty across the world are numerous; they include failing to have individual responsibility, poor government policy, poor economy, demographics, social and environmental factors, and poor health care among other factors. There are numerous inter-related problems causing hunger, these issues are as a result of lack of rights of lands ownership, the rich grab lands from the poor people and use them for their selfish gain, for example, in the third world countries the rich grab lands and they use the land for raising wool in the upcoming and highly fruitful looms.
The poor are denied the entitlement of lands and this has resulted to immense lack of sufficient agricultural practices, hence, starvation is inevitable. Poverty is also as a result of diversion of land utilization to non-productive use, for example, where importation of food is high the rich people grab massive lands and use them for activities like tobacco production among others and as a result, the government has to import food and this has led to the rise in food prices.
Corruption is another main cause of poverty in the world that happens at all levels of the community, from local and state governments, civil communities, judiciary functions, big and tiny businesses, military and some other services among others. The hardest hit people are those people who survive below the poverty line. This is irrespective of whether they live in first world countries like Germany or third world countries like Mexico.
The economic system worldwide has currently shaped the recent form of globalization, this has caused conditions in a way that corruption can increase and worsen the state of people who have very little or nothing to suggest about their destiny (Wesley, 1989, p.235). The results of this mass corruption and the inequalities have already been passed into law. The examples include consensus on free trade and unequal trade, polices on organizational adjustments among others.
These laws are assumed that they are not part of corruption because the have been transformed into laws. The well-off countries take advantage of the third world countries by exploiting the natural deposits of things like oil, gold, copper, diamonds among others and the payments are made to the people in power who in return take a lot of money away for their own use and hence widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
The other major cause of poverty around the world is poor governance. According to the recent research poor governance carries the blame for project failures, and collapsing of major business transformation projects (Madeley, 1999, p. 68). Analysts have cited poor governance as a major reason for their low returns and lack of confidence in the markets. As a result there a great raise in prices of the human basic requirements hence promoting poverty especially to the people with very low income. In order to maintain the high levels of economic development, which many countries are experiencing, the governments have to be effective in their governance and address the issue of globalization, the leaders should encourage people to take part in decision making and application of various activities that affect their living (Neild, 2002).
Demographics is another major cause of poverty, demographic can be defined as the quality of the human population as applied in the government, research or opinion on markets, among other factors. There is a great increase in the human population over time; this is as a result of lack of birth control methods, some religions like the Muslims do not believe in the family planning methods as a way of birth control, some other communities lack knowledge in the use of the birth control methods, others cannot afford to use birth control methods due to lack of finances, among other reasons (Malcolm, 2006, p.46).
This rapid increase in population is contrary to the available resources as a result the level of poverty has really increased due to lack of sufficient resources to feed the upcoming populations. The government in return has increased the market prices to cater for the higher taxes on the goods imported. As a result of the increase in the market prices the poor man has continuously become poorer (Hague et al., 2006, p. 85).
Social crimes like war, drug and substance abuse, pride and prejudice, assassinations, theft, among others have resulted to increased rate of poverty. Due to the above mentioned crimes many people have lost their lives living behind dependants. As a result of revenge many people who are the bread winners for their families have been assassinated, others sent to jail for lifetime imprisonment, as a result children have been left with no one to depend on and many die of hunger and poor health conditions.
Many people today have engaged in drug and substance abuse, this has resulted to psychological effects and hence they fail to provide for their families, others have finally been separated from their dependants and taken to rehabilitation centers. Due to social discrimination and social classes many people have been denied employment thus they lack income to support their families (Acemoglu, 2003, p.186).. In the countries where there is war, many people have escaped from their home countries to seek refuge in foreign lands where they have no rights to own property, as a result of these they have become dependant on food relief programmers.
Most of the low income earners have no access to proper health care for themselves and for their children (Fjeldsted, 2003, p.228).This has resulted to poor health nutrition hence leading to them being unable to work and provide for their families. In the poor countries there are few advanced health facilities, and the few that are available, the low income earners cannot afford, thus many people have lost their lives. In order for the H.I.V victims to extend their lives they requires proper well balanced health nutrition, many low income earners cannot meet this demand hence they lead to premature deaths, they also become so weak that they cannot work and support their families (Mauro, 1995, p. 684).
The other factor that enhances poverty is environmental disasters like soil erosion, earthquakes, landslides, deforestation, drought and famines, and climatic changes. Sometimes there is food shortage due to climate changes, in the countries where agriculture is the main source of income, many people are struck by drought and at times their members of families and animals die. Due to poverty many people have cut down the trees and burn them for charcoal, this has resulted to deforestation which in return has affected the climate negatively.
In the view of the above causes of poverty it is realized that poor governance is the major cause of the increased level of poverty, because if proper administration is applied and corruption brought to an end, then the gap between the poor and the rich can be minimized and the common man’s needs will be taken care of. The government should be in a position to provide proper health facilities, food relief services in case of natural disasters, give seminars to educate people on farming methods ands businesses among others, in order to control and reduce the levels of poverty. In conclusion it is recommended that the government works together with the common man to eradicate poverty in the world.
Reference List
Acemoglu, D., 2003, The Form of Property Rights: Oligarchic vs. Democratic Societies, Department of Economics, MIT, Cambridge.
Fjeldsted, O. H., 2003, Decentralization and Corruption: A Review of the Literature, U4 Report, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway.
Hague, C., Wakely P., Crespin J. and Jasko C., 2006, Making Planning Work: A Guide to Approaches and Skills. Intermediate Technology publications (ITDG). Warwickshire, United Kingdom.
Madeley, J. 1999, Big Business Poor Peoples; The Impact of Transnational Corporations on the World’s Poor, Zed Books, Kansas.
Malcolm, J., 2006, Urbanization, Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction in Asia. Institute of Development Studies and Overseas Development Institute.
Mauro, P., 1995, Corruption and Growth, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 110 pp. 681-712.
Neild, R., 2002, The Dark Side of Social Evolution, Anthem Press, London.
Wesley, S. J., 1989, The World’s Wasted Wealth: the political economy of waste, New World’s Press, New York.
Wesley, S. J., 2002, Regaining Rights to a Modern Commons through Eliminating the Subtle-Monopolization of Land, New World’s Press, New York.
