The World Bank defines poverty as "the state of living on less than $2 a day." The World Bank released new poverty estimates in August 2008. According to these estimates, approximately 1.4 billion people (one in four) in the developing world lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2005. Beyond being a quantifiable statistic, poverty can be defined more widely as hunger or not being employed or not having shelter. Poverty can also be thought as lacking access to adequate medical care, being uneducated and having an overall sense of powerlessness. Poverty factors include family history, trauma, limited opportunities, discrimination and attitudes of dependency and apathy.
Family History
A family history of poverty is one of the root causes of widespread poverty. Poor children are often victims of weak parenting skills and physical, emotional and sexual abuse. When these poverty-stricken children grow up and become parents themselves, they often pass down not only abuse but also drug and alcohol addictions, unhealthy eating habits, poor discipline and more to their children, who then pass along unhealthy habits to their own children. This is how the familial cycle of poverty is created and repeats itself.
Trauma
Traumatic life events also cause people to land in the cycle of poverty. Trauma can be caused by one individual catastrophic event or a series of catastrophic events that lead to poverty. Trauma can be caused by physical disabilities, mental impairment or by the effects of chronic drug or alcohol addictions. Senior citizens who outlive their retirement savings and other resources face their own trauma. Being fired from a job, or even experiencing a short layoff, can lead to poverty, as can divorce.
Limited Opportunities
Limited educational and employment opportunities are additional major contributors to poverty. Living in rural areas can cause many to live in poverty because most rural employers can only afford to pay minimum wage--at most. Some places have job training programs but no way of translating training into employment and income generation. Public schools that lack motivated, talented teachers (often because teachers themselves are not paid enough) put students at higher risk of failure or dropping out, causing harm in the long run. Rural areas without nearby schools suffer the most from poverty due to lack of education altogether.
Discrimination
Discrimination experienced by minority groups (especially Hispanics, African Americans and Native Americans) causes poverty because employers often refuse to hire those whom they feel prejudice toward. Or, if they do hire minorities, employers pay them significantly less. Women are also still often discriminated against through employer preferences to hire men or pay women less than men for their work, or both.
Attitudes
Being on the receiving end of charity often results in poverty-stricken individuals developing a dependency on the charity provider. The attitude that someone cannot help himself, or that a group must always exist on the outside to provide for himself can cause poverty to perpetuate itself. An attitude of apathy (not caring or feeling so powerless that one does not bother to try to change things) also contributes to poverty. Sometimes when people feel they are not capable of accomplishing something (such as overcoming the cycle of poverty), they become jealous of people in power and may take desperate measures to level the playing field.
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