Without money for medicine and treatment, the poor have to make really tough decisions, and usually essentials like food take priority. If people do seek treatment, the cost often ruins their finances. The last root of poverty is simple: stuff costs too much. Even the basics can be too expensive. Food prices are also very unpredictable in certain areas, so when they rise, the poor have to keep cutting out other essentials.
Housing is another essential that is rising. Global house markets have been climbing, according to the International Monetary Fund. Income growth, however, has not. Take a free course on poverty and economic justice! Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. Here are ten root causes: 1.
Subscribe to our newsletter! By continuing, you accept the privacy policy. You may also like. A study in Milwaukee showed that most teens, including teenage mothers, regarded education as being valuable for its own sake, as a source of personal pride and as an example for their children, as well as a route to upward economic mobility.
Surveys also indicate that the poor prefer work to receiving help from the government or from family members. For many low-income people, however, jobs are often unavailable; if available, they often pay poorly or do not provide health insurance.
To make ends meet, many people in poverty rely on public or familial assistance. Most women value their ability to combine work, welfare, and family support, and to use welfare while improving their job prospects. But many poor people distrust the government policies and programs that were ostensibly designed to help them.
Daniel T. Lichter is professor of sociology and the Robert F. Martha L. Crowley is a doctoral candidate in the sociology department at Ohio State University. Poverty threatens education, but education can also help end poverty. Imagine that you have to go to work, but there are no roads to get you there.
Or heavy rains have flooded your route and made it impossible to travel. A lack of infrastructure — from roads, bridges, and wells, to cables for light, cell phones, and internet — can isolate communities living in rural areas.
Living off the grid often means living without the ability to go to school, work, or the market to buy and sell goods. Traveling further distances to access basic services not only takes time, it costs money, keeping families in poverty. Isolation limits opportunity. Without opportunity, many find it difficult, if not impossible, to escape extreme poverty. Many people living in the United States are familiar with social welfare programs that people can access if they need healthcare or food assistance.
Ineffective governments also contribute to several of the other causes of extreme poverty mentioned above, as they are unable to provide necessary infrastructure or healthcare, or ensure the safety and security of their citizens in the event of conflict.
This might seem like a no-brainer: Without a job or a livelihood, people will face poverty. Dwindling access to productive land often due to conflict, overpopulation, or climate change and overexploitation of resources like fish or minerals puts increasing pressure on many traditional livelihoods. In the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC for example, most of the population lives in rural communities where natural resources have been plundered over centuries of colonial rule — while conflict over land has forced people away from their source of income and food.
Now, more than half of the country lives in extreme poverty. All of the above risk factors — from conflict to climate change or even a family illness — can be weathered if a family or community has reserves in place. Cash savings and loans can offset unemployment due to conflict or illness. Proper food storage systems can help if a drought or natural disaster ruins a harvest.
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