Liliya Reymer

Professor Dr. KT Magnusson

ECON-2010-407
November 24, 2014
Global Poverty
Global Poverty is one of the most prevalent problems faced by the
world today. Based on distribution by income it states that 25 percent of all
households had annual before-tax income of less than $25,000 in 2011,
while 21 percent had annual incomes of $100,000 or more in the United
States. The US Census Bureau announced last month that 37 million
Americans are poor. The low-income nations with 2.5 billion residents
averaging $2,500 a year do not understand how anyone would be considered
poor. Poverty standards are without doubt set by cultural bounds. The
national judgment constitutes what are acceptable living standards. What
may seem to be rich to one country is poor to another. Cultural norms define
what is adequate and what is not. Poverty can be defined on many
different aspects, the most widely used is income poverty and human needs
not satisfied.
Global Poverty exists in almost every developing, less developed and
under developed country. Some define poverty fundamentally as the denial
of choices and an extreme violation of human dignity. Poverty can also be
defined as the lack of basic capacity to actively participate in the society.
Poverty means that the people lack basic resources such as food, shelter and

clothing. The issue is that people are unable to buy these things because
they dont have the resources to purchase them. The World Bank defines
poverty as the deprivation of the human well-being. The points of such a
statement include, low incomes and the inability to buy the basic resources
for a good living. The World Bank assumes that low levels of health and
education, very limited sanitation and clean water, insufficient physical
security, insufficient capacity to improve ones standard of living.
One factor that is not always considered is that a large percentage of
people that are living in poverty are full time workers who support their
families on very small salaries. The minimum wage that has been
established is argued by many that its far too low. By re-calculating the
minimum wage and setting a minimum that is realistic and agreeable to the
public. Minimum wage should be able to cover a family living cost and other
associated cost such as medical, transportation and education it would
alleviate many people that are considered in poverty. Another factor is that
many people who are working full time to support their families still fall short
and rely on state or government assistance to support the needs of their
families. I believe if employers provided realistic compensation based on life
needs and decrease the need of government assistance for the individuals
who have the ability to work full time, it would free up the government
funding being able to provide a larger availability of assistance to others that
are unable to work and provide for their families in poverty.
Empowering people by giving them a good education that will prepare
them to have a career and to hold a job that will make them more confident,

give them the chance to learn from others, allow them to earn a good living
to help their children to live a better life. I strongly believe that one way to
help with alleviating global poverty is to assist the people with getting the
wages that can make it possible to afford lifes needs and providing them the
tools necessary to obtain a stable job/career that will avoid going back into
the same situation they were in before. As the saying goes give a man a fish
he will eat for one day, if you teach a man how to fish he can eat for a
lifetime.
The other factor in alleviating Global Poverty is education. Giving more
power through education, information, coaching and counseling, and amplify
the possibilities to get or create a job or business is the best way to achieve
poverty alleviation. Empowering has to also mean giving the primary needs
to someone: water, food, house, communications, energy, job, health.
Education is an empowering tool to help people change the conditions of
their lives by taking action while having knowledge and skills of a trade that
will make them competitive in the particular productive field. In terms of
education, lifelong learning is crucial in order to alleviate poverty. In general,
a good educational system represents the first step to a satisfying job.
People would have the chance to achieve a better life through a better
education system, giving them the means to find the place of work that
better fits to their studies or abilities. Many companies/employers will pay a
higher competitive wage to individuals with the proper education that fits
their business needs. For individuals already in poverty would find it
impossible to achieve this kind of education based on cost of education.

Through assisted programs that provide to those who are unable to meet the
demands of educational costs it would encourage more people to better their
education.
In conclusion, people individually can help alleviate poverty because
those who have been empowered will become self-reliant from their skills
that they have been taught. They can have jobs which they will use to take
of their family. If there is no one in the family who can afford to take care of
the children and other relatives the poverty will increase, so by empowering
one person it can alleviate others from poverty as well. It will not be
something easily corrected or if ever completely alleviated.