Major Cause Of Poverty example essay topic

There are many factors that aid the prevalence of poverty. Firstly, it is difficult to assess these causes because the word 'poverty' can be very subjective and difficult to define. In attempting to define what poverty is, one would suggest having a lack of income and resources not consistent with the requirements of the poverty line. Three factors that play major roles as causes of poverty would be having a lack of education, systemic discrimination, and inequities based on a capitalist system.

This paper will look at ways in which these causes can be combated and at the same time evaluated in regards to it's positive and negative aspects. Education has long been a problem in society, because the lack of this essential tool of survival doesn't allow for growth of any sort. It is a known fact that the risk of poverty usually decreases as people get more schooling. Poor education can be either a cause of poverty or an effect.

Young people who drop out of school may be poor because they lack the required skills needed to get good jobs, therefore adding to a system that forces them to only be able to live in low-income, economically starving areas. Moreover, education is a basic requirement in order to climb a hierarchy of income in our society, so uneducated people are forced to become content with their surroundings. Systemic discrimination can be said to be a form of institutional injustice that depends on this quiet oppression in order to maintain a history of past dominance. There are many types of barriers that are not openly blatant and are in place so that minorities don't get the opportunity to overcome these obstacles. As a result, many minorities including women cannot overcome ranks in the workforce and are left with the lower paying jobs. Furthermore, legislation in the Canadian government helps provide a structure for these proceedings, for example laws that were passed as a result of affirmative action programs might be said to be unjust and unconstitutional.

Canada operates under a capitalist system so it should really be no wonder as to why poverty really exists in this country. It is necessary to have poverty in order to support capitalism. Failure in our system would result in poverty and therefore this sadly, becomes an incentive to become exceedingly wealthy and rich. Subsequently, greed and selfishness becomes prominent even though it results in some people being extremely above the poverty line, and others being extremely below the line. If a person lacks the necessary resources to compete in this free enterprise, they will surely become failures and live under the poverty line. In this type of economic system it becomes a race for dominance and survival of the fittest, thus creating a major gap between the successful in society and the unsuccessful.

Overall, poverty in Canada can definitely be attributed to capitalism among many other things. Education, or the lack of, is a major problem in our society that is a major factor of poverty. A solution to this, although communist in nature, could be free education after high school. This would help level the playing field and give opportunities for anyone, regardless their credit history a fair opportunity to receive an education. Implementing this system could help people who dropped out of school at an early age to go back for better schooling and skill training so that they can compete in the workforce for jobs that otherwise would not have been available for them. Also, a reduction in class sizes at the high school level could allow for more personal guidance from teachers to students that may be struggling and contemplating dropping out of school.

Systemic discrimination is an underlying fault of a capitalist system that is a major cause of poverty. To combat this problem, programs similar to affirmative action based on meeting gender and racial quotas should be established. Furthermore, in a capitalist system, the financially secure people control who and what establishes one as being over the poverty-line. If you are a person that has been designated to be under, it becomes difficult to receive such things as car and mortgage loans, therefore adding to a poverty cycle that is difficult to break out of.

If the poverty line were to be reduced, then things like loans and mortgages become more accessible to families that may have been considered unfit for such things in the past. This enables families to move out of the economically starving areas and start businesses that can compete in the market-place. It is not easy to battle many problems that result because of a lack of education. It is usually the individual that has to make the decision for themselves as to their education. Although this may be the case, the government should make it as easy as possible to get back into the system and receive fair standards of intellect. Universal education or free education after high school would be great for the economy as-well as people in general because it would entail a high literacy rate and overall better sense of knowledge amongst the people in this country.

However, this would eliminate jobs related to scholarship programs and bursaries for school. If so, the unemployed people could easily go back to school to study something-else or branch off into another type of job. Although this sounds quite simple, it would bring up an issue of how they would pay for their homes and food whilst attending school. They would likely lose their homes if they didn't have some type of grant coming from the government.

This education policy would then tie into welfare programs because people would then opt for such assistance whilst going to school. Therefore, the government should limit the amount of time people can depend on programs based on government assistance. In terms of the deficit, these programs would initially cost more because it doesn't pay immediate dividends, but in the long-run, the production possibility curve would shift outward as less people would be unemployed and more skilled workers would be hired, thus compensating for any opportunity cost. Evaluating the policy to battle systemic discrimination as a cause of poverty in Canada's capitalistic system results in a clear distinction between the pros and cons of the remedies.

If the government installed programs based on meeting quota's in a corporation, then past systemic discrimination would be eliminated. On the other hand, these programs, would be hypocritical in itself, because they would be battling past discrimination with new discrimination. As a result of this, people's rights guaranteed to them in the charter would be taken away and would result in unconstitutional laws being passed or the charter being amended. In terms of battling the inequities of a capitalist system, it would be a boost to our economy because people would now be over the poverty line, and it would cost the government absolutely nothing to do so. It would however, affect the stock-market as previously ignored minority established businesses would have an opportunity to grow because other visual minorities would be empowered to take chances on these companies. Poverty is a term that can be viewed from many different aspects when attempting to define this opinionated word.

This is a major problem in Canada, and it is evident everytime you travel down-town and actually see poverty within just feet of the premier's office. Even though the actual word may be difficult to define, there are endless causes of it. It doesn't make sense that we condemn other forms of government that are base on equality and fair opportunity when our own system is based on 'survival of the fittest'. In essence, it is really based on survival of who can control the most amount of resources first and maintain it. Regardless of our ineptitude to define this word, we do know that lack of education, systemic discrimination, and inequities based on a capitalist system will cause it. I personally believe that absolute poverty can never be solved regardless of what system one might live in.

It is because of our form of government that politicians are afraid to implement policies that might not be fully developed when it's time to call another election. We should battle poverty regardless of how it may effect the deficit in the short-term.