Poverty has been a major crisis in the world and exists in different within two extremes, that is, absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is common in Africa, Asia and South America where some communities starve due to a lack of food, lack of adequate shelter and clothing. Relative poverty is not extreme because it involves social exclusion due to a lack of amenities such as a car and a good house. Poverty means misfortune to the poor because they do not have freedom in the choices to make in life thus leading to their exploitation. It can be caused by such issues as drought, flooding, power centralization, corruption and social inequalities. In society, poverty brings about a divided conflict between the rich and the poor. It can be eradicated if only the government of each country prioritizes it as a major problem while planning on resources distribution.
The poor are always exploited by the rich people who have access to large tracts of land, big businesses, and factories. They maximize their profits by paying peanuts to their workers who tolerate the harsh conditions to get their daily bread. Apart from workers’ exploitation, there is also exploitation of the poor countries by the rich ones. Products and goods produced by the poor countries are sold at very low prices to these countries. Besides, when poor people immigrate to these countries, they get the lowest wages. However, the rich people and the rich countries reduce poverty to some extent by providing jobs and markets to the poor, but the help is too little compared to the benefits they get thus accelerating poverty.
Poverty, power and social class are all related since they involve a kind of oppression by one class. Social classes are divided depending on the income one gets. Those who get power in society belong to the upper class and may possess their own machines for production. Those from the lower class work like machines for the capitalists. The social classes bring about so many inequalities; those in the upper class have freedom since they have power and have the ability to own many properties as possible. The poor from the lower class do not possess property and cannot obtain power either. The only way to overcome all this is by distributing resources equally and paying equal wages.
The serious factors that lead to poverty include natural calamities such as earthquakes, flooding and drought. There are also those factors in the community that increase poverty levels. To begin with, power centralization leads to unfair distribution of resources and development is only done in specific areas. Power decentralization aids in decision-making as well as in the equal distribution of resources. Another cause of poverty is corruption; leaders who use the money for development to cater to their own personal needs. Environmental degradation affects the poor since they rely on such things as agriculture to make the ends meet. So, when the water catchment areas are destroyed, the poor people suffer greatly.
Governments in all countries should make sure that children access education equally regardless of age and gender. Education especially for girls has a positive effect on families. The government should also make sure every part of the country has enough resources and facilities such as water supply, schools, hospitals and social services. Most governments are ignorant and do not perceive poverty as a major problem in society.
It becomes very difficult for the poor to escape poverty because they are marginalized in most societies and their voices are never heard in political discussions. Transparency should exist in a country and citizens should always demand it because corruption is the major cause of poverty in most countries since the citizens’ funds are embezzled.