HAPPY

Title: Why is there poverty and can it be completely removed?
In this session the concept of poverty will be discussed, the problems we have in measuring it, its causes, and policy responses to it.
Over the last several decades’ years, the poverty is undoubtedly considered as one of the most serious problems in the world, even though there has been a rapid development of the economy in some developing countries such as China and India. The relation between poverty and the development of the economy is complex and the poverty has become a cosmopolitan issue. In general, due to the theory of economy, poverty consists of the low level of the economy, society and culture phenomenon. To some extent, poverty has an expression of inequalities, which arose because of the low level of welfare that people have in certain parts in the world. Although the fact that most of people have lived in developed countries, a few of them still suffer from poverty . Thus, it is clear to know that poverty is not the exception, which has been become the rule in the world. In addition, many wars in the history were caused by the poverty. Because of the war, the gap between poor countries and rich countries are becoming wider and wider. On the contrary, with the development of the economics and society, the problem of poverty has decreased at the end of WWII. The organizations of globalization has contributed a lot to help poor countries, for instance, the World Bank and IMF. This essay will introduce the concept of poverty and the two types of poverty which are absolute poverty and relative poverty. It will then turn to the problems in measuring the poverty, followed by the reasons why the poverty exists and the responses that the policy have to this issue.
In the first place, the poverty is seen as an economy and society phenomenon. As a matter of the fact, the concept of the poverty means being deprived of the necessities of life; that is, lacking sufficient food, shelter, fuel and clothing to keep up ‘physical efficiency’ which is the absolute standard. For example, someone who have to eat about 2,000 to 2,500 calories every day at least to make their body become energetic. In this view, poverty is difficult to exist among people who are rich such as those who live in the USA, the UK and other developed countries. However, it is easy to find poverty in some poor countries. In addition, the type of the poverty can be consisted of two sections which are absolute poverty and relative poverty (Heywood, A, 2007). The phrase of the absolute poverty means that people cannot afford some necessities in the life although they have some income, which means their income is too small to afford a number of necessities. To some extent, the definition of the poverty is seen as an absolute poverty standard. However, the relative poverty means that 45% of the average income level of the society are being measured; that is as the “less well off” rather than “needy”. There are many ways which can measure the level of poverty such as the ‘poverty line’ used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) , which is the level of income that is 50% or less than that of the middle home. If people do not have enough income, which means their incomes is lower than that typical people in their country have, those people will be defined as poor people. There is an important relation between inequality and poverty which can raise some political problems. As a result, it is important to redistribute the wealth and promote the equality in order to reduce the poverty and there has been some organizations such as the World Bank and IMF.
In the second place, there are many reasons that can contribute to the phenomenon of the poverty. First of all, Demographic trends and natural conditions are one of the reasons for the poverty. The cause of this is that there are a large number of populations in the world. However, the natural resources are limited. The nature resources cannot produce enough food and water for each individual. There are many factors that can change the natural circumstances such as the climate. However, there is nothing we can do to change the serious issue. Secondly, Social organization and personal responsibility are also considered as one of the reason for the poverty. There are a great deal of people in the world and each individual have different personalities. Poverty is an unavoidable problem between each individuals. Due to the different environment that people have, there are many differences among the educational levels. For example, some people who live in a rich family and have enough things to use. They have adequate money to pursue further education, which could also help their job careers. By the contrary, a few of them live in disadvantaged areas. They could not get better education, even do not have patient teachers in their home areas. And this is bad for their future, which means they can only get low incomes due to their low qualification. In other worlds, this situation often appears to the society and it is unfair for some people who are from deprived areas in the society. Besides, the consequence of exploitation and social injustice could also lead to the poverty. Since the UN’s 1999, as the view of Human Development Report found that the world’s richest consists of three people exceeded the combined GDP’s of all of world, which makes the world become ‘least developed’. Nevertheless, this is due to the vicious-circle theory which means the rich people will become richer and the poor people will become poorer. To some extent, it is true that the rich become richer and this is due to the behaviour of exploitation. As an example, some parts of developed countries have overused some land, capita, cheap labours that come from poor countries and so on. To some extent, it is an obstacle for some developing countries to become rich.
Moreover, the global organizations have come up with a few solutions in order to reduce the imbalance between the equality and poverty. The World Bank is an intergovernmental organization which was established by 27th December 1944. There are 186 countries which have become the members of the organization and it is used to help the reconstruction of some places to reduce the poverty, especially in developing countries, by the way of providing a certain loans and financial aids. In the beginning, the aim of the organization is that to provide loans and financial aids in order to reconstruct to some countries in the Second World War. Nowadays, the aim of the World Bank is that to help countries to reduce the poverty and to increase the level of living. It covers two institutions which are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). It plays a moral and imperative role in the world which could help some developing countries to decrease the poverty. Due to the recalculation in 2004, which was based on purchasing power parity (PPP), it has supported 1.25 dollars rather than 1 dollar to poor people who are in need per day. And it is reported that there are 1.4 billion people who live below the international poverty line. Even though the world bank has provided some aids to people who are in need, to some extent, the number of poor people has become more than double to 3.14 billion or 49 per cent of the population in the world with the rapid increasing of the population, (Heywood, A, 2007).
Furthermore, there is a positive program which is called by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) consists of 189 countries which were established by the UN General Assembly and signed by 147 heads of state and government in 2000. The main aim of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is that to deal with the problems that has existed for a long or medium time such as the poverty, hunger and some negative environment in the world . And the organization has done a lot to decrease the poverty. In addition, there are 8 goals in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which are to reduce the poverty and hunger, achieve primary education, increase gender equality and empower women, decrease child mortality, increase maternal health, find good ways to solve HIV/AIDS/, malaria and other diseases, improve environmental sustainability and develop a Global Partnership for Development (Heywood, A, 2007). This is an organization not only focus on the wealth, but also help to change the world which will improve global economy and exiting inequalities. It is beneficial to provide financial systems to some poor countries and make those countries become rich. To some extent, it is clear to find that some developed countries are willing to help developing countries to improve the economy . In addition, it is also beneficial to change the rule of inequalities and keep a balance between the rich areas and poor areas.
However, there are many advantages and disadvantages on the way that the international aid which is used to achieve at efficient international goals . On the one hand, it is true that rich countries provide more helps to poor countries , which make the world become more balanced and fairer. Similarly, it is effective for people to reduce the rate of death and increase the level of living in the world. In spite of the fact that the international aids to deal with many serious issues which could help to reduce the poverty and improve the economic growth. On the other hand, due to the aids from the international organizations, some poor countries always depend on some helps which lead to those countries do not develop by themselves or come up with some ideas to reduce the poverty. In addition, in some cases, it is bad for global market which could distort the institution of the global market (Heywood, A, 2007).
In conclusion, poverty is a serious issue in the world and there is a common distinction between absolute poverty and relative poverty whose meaning of poor is the ‘less well off’ rather than ‘needy’. In addition, there are many reasons which could result in the poverty in the world. To some extent, there is nothing that people could do to deal with the serious situation such as demographic trends and natural conditions. The reason for this is that there are limited natural resources such as water and fuel which can be used in the world. However, it is important for people to know that they should work hard instead of becoming lazy if they want to be rich. And it is effective for a family to change the poor phenomenon. The bad influences of globalization are inequality and poverty. And there are no direct solutions to deal with these issues. However, there are a few international aid works that has been established in the world and could help to reduce the poverty. To some extent, it is effective to adjust some policy and programs which are beneficial to improve the economic growth in developing countries and reduce the level of poverty and the rate of death for people such as the World Bank, IMF and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This is a situation that rich countries help poor countries to reduce the poverty and decrease the global inequality in the world. Nevertheless, there are also a few possible disadvantages. As an example, some commentators had an argument that the international aid work makes the world become poor. This is because those organizations disturb the markets and tend to increase corruption and inequality in the world.
Reference List
1.Heywood, A. (2007) Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.