Outline the Causes of Poverty (8 Marks)
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- Date Submitted: 02/10/2014 09:32 AM
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Poverty is defined as the deprivation of food, shelter, money and clothing due to people not being able to satisfy their basic needs. There are 2 poverty types; one is absolute (extreme) poverty that refers to a state of deprivation of basic human needs such as water, healthcare, education, clothing and sanitation. This is mainly experienced in the developing world where 21% live on less than $1.25 a day. Whilst relative poverty refers to economic inequality (e.g. income) in the location or society that people live in; this is seen worldwide. So absolute and relative poverty will have a few different causes. There are many interrelated factors explaining why poverty happens, but no one explanation has universal acceptance.
One of the main causes of absolute poverty is political factors, mainly high corruption levels within the government such as dictatorships means decisions made aren’t accountable to the public, so money could be spent on unnecessary items such as the army instead of healthcare and education. Also this can undermine efforts by developed countries to make a sustainable impact on poverty, as seen in Nigeria where its leaders from 1960 – 1999 stole over $400 billion from the treasury. This lack of democracy can impact demographic factors, making the cycle of poverty harder to break. For example comparing autocracies to poor democracies the benefits they gain include: 25% higher infant mortality rates, 9 years shorter life expectancies, 40% lower opportunity to finish school and 25% lower agricultural yields. In particular the increased infant mortality rates and lower life expectancies, can lead to high birth rates in developing countries to increase the likelihood of child survival, creating overpopulation (where there isn’t enough resources to support the population). This can be seen in India with a population over 1 billion and 35% living on less than $1.25 a day, the people living in poverty increases as the population increases. This can...
One of the main causes of absolute poverty is political factors, mainly high corruption levels within the government such as dictatorships means decisions made aren’t accountable to the public, so money could be spent on unnecessary items such as the army instead of healthcare and education. Also this can undermine efforts by developed countries to make a sustainable impact on poverty, as seen in Nigeria where its leaders from 1960 – 1999 stole over $400 billion from the treasury. This lack of democracy can impact demographic factors, making the cycle of poverty harder to break. For example comparing autocracies to poor democracies the benefits they gain include: 25% higher infant mortality rates, 9 years shorter life expectancies, 40% lower opportunity to finish school and 25% lower agricultural yields. In particular the increased infant mortality rates and lower life expectancies, can lead to high birth rates in developing countries to increase the likelihood of child survival, creating overpopulation (where there isn’t enough resources to support the population). This can be seen in India with a population over 1 billion and 35% living on less than $1.25 a day, the people living in poverty increases as the population increases. This can...