Poverty is a major problem in the United States today. Social, economical, political, and
cultural factors all contribute to poverty. Education and economic development are two
major issues that will help prevent poverty. The United States Census Bureau defines
poverty as an “economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain basic
needs for food, housing, clothing, health services and education.” In other words, poverty
is powerlessness, a lack of representation and freedom. Poverty is an issue that the world
faces everyday.
There are two ways to categorize poverty in a sociologist viewpoint. Absolute poverty
simply refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford the necessities of life,
whereas relative poverty refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford that which
is considered a normal standard of living in society. Absolute poverty is far more worse
than relative poverty because they could quite possible not have a house or food to live on
for everyday survival. There are basically five different categories in which each poverty
stricken person can be placed in. The first category are those who are not able to work
because they are too old, too young, disabled, or tied down by social responsibility. The
second category are those who are able and qualified to work but can not find work. The
third category are those who are not equipped to fill available jobs either because they are
undereducated or because their skills have become outdated. The fourth category are those
whose social and personal problems have brought them to a point of self-defeating
discouragement. The last category are those who are underpaid, or unable to get a fair
price for what they have to sell. After defining which people are in poverty, these
categories can answer my question of why are they in poverty and how they can be helped.
For economic factors, low wages would be the variable that would lead to poverty.
Families that receive low wages can barely support their living expenses. Thus they would
not have enough money for programs that would aid their childrens education. Some
families think that crime has better incentives than working a low paying job and thus
crime could be put in as an economic factor that leads to poverty. Not having enough
money for programs like education leads to the individual behavior of illiteracy and lower
education, since the parents cannot afford to send their children to upper level education.
