This essay will cover an understanding of the history of poverty how it has a great impact on a child’s life chances. It will give a brief definition of different types of poverty on a child´s life chances such as absolute, relative and overall poverty. In addition to that it also explains what impact poverty has on education, health and communities.
The history of poverty exists as long as humanity itself, however, it began to develop with the replacement of feudalism by capitalism. The modern economy expanded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is said that poverty was created and it exists because people were detached from their land and became workers, which means they became dependent on their wage and since it was not sufficient, it led to poverty. Thus poverty stems from capitalism and can be removed only if capitalism is replaced by another economic direction. ( Alcock, 2006)
There are three definitions of poverty. The first is absolute, the second is relative and the third is overall poverty. The definition of absolute poverty is considered to be objective and sometimes even scientific and is based on subsistence. At least a minimum standard is needed to sustain life, so anyone who does not reach the subsistence level experiences absolute poverty. People living in it lack financial resources and therefore they are starving and in countries such as Great Britain they freeze in winter because they cannot afford heating. Actually every winter in Britain an increasing number of elderly people die of hypothermia due to the lack of money for heating their homes. The definition of absolute poverty is thus linked to an attempt to clarify the subsistence. The problem of poverty could therefore be removed if it was found what it took to survive.
The definition of relative poverty is associated with subjective or social norms, recognizing that a judgment is directly involved in determining the level of