With the development of technology and society, most people’s living condition become better and more comfortable than before. However, there are still many people living under the poverty line. Poverty is one of the most dangerous social problems for the whole world in 21st century. For instance, the U.S., the most developed country, is still bothered by this problem. 15 percent of Americans, about 46.5 million people, have been living in poor in 2012 (Davidson, 2013). Therefore, many people and our governments begin to help these people solve this problem. USA government spent about $18,016 per pool person in 2016. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in that does reduce poverty beneficial for everyone. However, some people point out that the costs of reducing poverty have far exceeded the benefits. The non-poor can’t receive the benefits as well as the poor. On the contrary, most people think that reducing poverty will not only help the poor people but also can help the others. Because after poverty reduced, our society would be safer and the economy will also grow faster. However, some people point out that the costs of reducing poverty have far exceeded the benefits. I strongly believe that reducing poverty is beneficial for the poor and non-poor.
Many of the issues that are deeply thought about by Americans, such as crime, the ability to pay for healthcare, ethnic relations, worker productivity, are all directly related and worsened by poverty. As a result, the society spends a lot of money on removing poverty from our daily life. The Children’s Defense Fund’s report points out that children are not the only victims of poverty. When children are unsuccessful in adulthood, all societies are suffered by this: businesses cannot find enough good workers to support the economic, consumers have to spend more money on purchasing, hospitals and health insurance companies spend more on preventable diseases. Also, teachers spend more time on repairing and special education. On the streets where citizens feel less secure, the governor devotes more money to employ police officers to maintain social security. Of course, taxpayers need to pay more for issues that could have been avoided.
Reducing poverty can help us to reduce the health risks. Lower birth weight is very common for needy children, and severe food insecurity and inefficiency problem would become a severe problem for these needy families’ infants, which affects healthy development. As poor adults, poor people have higher possibility to get illness, disease, and disabilities than those who have higher incomes. On the other hand, it is also easier for them to develop chronic diseases such as hypertension, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol (Brown, 2011). Under these conditions, state of illness of these lower-income individuals usually would be worse. Moreover, it would also become another bigger problem for the government. Because of their life situation, the government would spend more money for their life. Reducing poverty can help these low-income people get a better life, and it also can decrease the government spending on the sustain the poor’s life.
The economic strength of the United States relies on a strong middle class. First, the purchasing power has promoted the contribution of our economy. Second, these labors create huge value for economic growth. However, because of the decline of income, more and more Americans are getting into poverty from the middle class, which has brought downward pressure on American’s economy. Also, long-term poverty decreases human capital development by limited access to education and training as well as appropriate health care. Their contributions may be limited or minimized when people who have experienced long-term poverty in the workforce, which means they can help the economic growth and they need government to spend extra fund to support their life. Some of them probably may not be able to enter the workforce at all. As a result, millions of Americans who are not skilled in technology are also low in productivity and purchasing power (Brown, 2011). This leads to a decrease in demand for most of our population and a decrease in investment in expanding and developing the economy.
Reducing poverty has an added benefit, increasing social security. Some research found that there is some link between poverty and people’s children’s experience. These children from a low-income family. Thus, they usually will meet many problems, which will impact their future life, such as lack family functioning, drop out of school, and so on. These factors will influence their violent behavior (Epstein, 2016). After these children stepping into society, they will engage to solve a social problem by violence. Moreover, in some developing country, the poverty looks like fuel terrorism and encourage people to join this organization. In many developing countries with the broken economic system and the high unemployment rates, such as Iraq, and Afghanistan, there have a lot of terrorist organizations.
Terrorist organizations usually provide higher salaries than other jobs in these countries. However, poverty does not have the direct effect on the terrorist, so what are the causes of violence and anger? Some studies have shown that in these countries, weaken government, brittle institutions, and limited citizen rights provide a suitable environment for breeding terrorist activities. National transition, many counties experiences these difficulties. From authoritarianism to democratic regimes, the ambiguity of specific rules and laws, political instability is often encountered, but poverty is one of the results of these problems. That also provide some chances for terrorism.
Besides, reducing poverty generates opportunities and prosperity for both the poor people and the non-poor (Hall, & Patrinos, 2012). Economic growth increases incentives for parents and guardians to enable them to send their children to schools to gain knowledge to the highest level. In return, this results in the emergence of a population that is fit in accessing multiple employment opportunities as well as empowered with different entrepreneurial skills (Bruton, Ketchen, & Ireland, 2013). Eventually, this will lead to income growth for the poor as well as the middle class which is likely to generate pressure for improved governance. Therefore, by implementing the poverty reduction strategies, it will lead to enhanced education system through advanced human development and consequently promoting economic growth. Research conducted by various scholars stipulate that in most countries, the most significant way to reduce poverty is through rapid and sustainable economic growth. This is supported by data from cross-country studies that imply that increasing the average income of a country results in approximately 20-30 percent poverty rate decrease.
Poverty reduction entails the creation of high demand for labor hence increasing job opportunities. Employment often remains to be the primary and sole asset of the poor and the middle-class population (Bruton, Ketchen, & Ireland, 2013). Increased employment increases the standards of living by increasing the income of people which in return leads to economic growth. For a country to achieve economic growth, it is crucial for the majority of the working population to have jobs and not to be underemployed. It is evident that even the low-skilled working population in the society earning real wages results in high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Hall, & Patrinos, 2012). This is an indication that even the poor in the society benefit from the increase in global trade which is one of the strategies put forward to reduce poverty.
Also, poverty reduction is beneficial especially to the marginalized people especially the women. This is possible since women will have access to education as well as training. Most women are unable to access education due to the high rates of poverty that forces preference of the boy child education to female. Therefore, if poverty rates are reduced substantially, there will be enough income to enable women not only access education, but also training in even technical courses that are often dominated by the male (Sherraden, & Gilbert, 2016). Also, through the knowledge gained, women will have access to employment opportunities hence reducing the high rates of poverty among women which is usually as a result of unemployment and underemployment. Similarly, poverty reduction enhances women empowerment in various aspects including access to the principal factors of production and even participation (Sherraden, & Gilbert, 2016).
Moreover, poverty reduction means food security for both the poor parents and children. There are various positive effects associated with access to food including improved health which lowers the healthcare costs that could be suffered by both the government and family members. Also, food security enhanced better learning and increased labor force which in return increases the working population hence increasing the GDP of a country thus resulting in economic growth. This increase in economic production proves the fact that alleviating poverty is not only beneficial to the poor but also the wealthy and the government at large.
It is significant for the government to come up with poverty alleviation strategies to reduce the number of crimes in the society. In a nation where most people are unemployed or, underemployed crimes are on the increase. This is because the poor people in the community try to gain their living by engaging in robbery, human and drug trafficking among others to get income to sustain their families. The cost of solving these crimes is higher as compared to the adoption of poverty reduction strategies such as raising wages for the low-skilled, increasing the enrollment level for both men and women and improving the housing conditions (Hall, & Patrinos, 2012). This can only be achieved by ensuring individuals from all income levels participate equitably to ensure sustainable and beneficial strategies are adopted (Rakodi, 2014).
In conclusion, despite the arguments by other individuals posting that poverty eradication is expensive, it is more beneficial to most people the poor and the non-poor inclusive. Some of the benefits associated with poverty alleviation include access to education by children from all income groups to make them viable for the competitive work environment and different opportunities globally. Also, reduced poverty means improved health including low mortality rates hence decreasing the unnecessary expenditure by the government to cover the healthcare costs. It is evident that approximately half of the population in poverty are suffering because of lack of employment and underemployment.
This is closely related to the high illiteracy levels particularly in women making them unfit for the present working employment. If the government turns its back on the issue of poverty, the consequences are likely to be more expensive compared to even the costs that could be incurred in raising wages for the low-skilled and middle-class working population. When a high population is miring in poverty, this results in a substantial burden on the criminal justice system since crimes will be on the increase, increased healthcare costs, less tax revenue to the state, as well as women being unproductive or less productive in the society. Therefore, every individual has a role to play in the society to ensure poverty alleviation to avoid the costs associated with a society languishing in poverty.
References
Bruton, G. D., Ketchen Jr, D. J., & Ireland, R. D. (2013). Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(6), 683-689.
Hall, G. H., & Patrinos, H. A. (Eds.). (2012). Indigenous peoples, poverty, and development. Cambridge University Press.
Rakodi, C. (2014). Urban livelihoods: A people-centered approach to reducing poverty. Routledge.
Sherraden, M., & Gilbert, N. (2016). Assets and the Poor: New American Welfare Policy. Routledge.
