This is in response to a pattern which I see where people are singular in their perception of the cause and solution for poverty. There are certainly more elements to poverty than I discuss here. It's an article about some of the factors involved in poverty.
There's a lot of bandwagoning about poverty. Some people blame the wealthy, others blame the poor while the government is sometimes the scapegoat, as well as some types of charities. But putting the blame on just particular groups misses the complexity of economic status.
Even the definitions of poverty are problematic. Although there are rural poor, not all people with low incomes in rural areas live in poverty conditions. The numbers are different in places where a 2 bedroom house can rent for $300 a month. So too much focus on the numbers can misdefine and even degrade people's lives. I'm not saying that dollar values are not important. I'm just saying that wage as a measurement of poverty needs to be compared to other factors rather than the sole measure as some people use it.
There are different levels of poverty, some more damaging than others. Here's a definition which I think is useful. "Condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, health and intellectual fulfillment are not being met. Poverty is generally of two types: (1) Absolute poverty is synonymous with destitution and occurs when people cannot obtain adequate resources to support a minimum level of physical and mental health. (2) Relative poverty occurs when people do not enjoy a certain minimum level of living standards as determined by a government (and enjoyed by the bulk of the population) that vary from country to country, sometimes within the same country."
However poverty is defined, the fact of the matter is that there are a substantial number of people who cannot afford the things necessary for heath and well being. For the purposes of this article, this will be the focus. So, what affects people's ability to have what is necessary for their health and well being? It varies widely and that is why the bandwagoning is so dangerous. Some cases of poverty have multiple issues.
I was once in a sever state of poverty. As a general description, let's say that I was homeless and destitute. It's not in the purview of this article to tell the whole story. But my situation was affected by multiple factors. Let's look at some of them.
People in better positions sometimes negatively impact people in lesser positions. This correlates to blaming the wealthy. In my case, it was upper management in a company using employee wage and hour manipulation to increase profit rather than develop a strategy which was good for both the company and employees. The company found itself in a bit of a financial slump largely caused by bad management decisions. Part of its strategy to show profit growth was to drastically drop long term employee hours and hire new people at a revised lower wage. In my department, there were 3 of us who had been with the company for several years and worked full time for most of those years. Our pay was a combination of hourly wage and commission. However, sales were completely dependent upon what we sold to walk-in traffic. All three of us had our hours cut from full time down to as little as 12 hours a week. Since we were dependent upon walk-in traffic, it was difficult to increase sales per hour to compensate. In the end, we found ourselves at poverty level wages where we once made a comfortable income. The company's strategy was to replace lost hours by hiring students who were not solely dependent on their personal income.
Childhood environment can impact adult decision making. I was raised with a mentally handicapped mother and brother. This created an environment which impacted my development. I've known others with variations of intellectually challenged environments. Violence and the physical environment are also potential impediments to good childhood development. As an adult, I was accountable for my bad decisions but the causes of them included various conditioning factors relating to being influenced by the intellectually challenged family.
Existing environment can perpetuate either good or bad conditions. Between the lack of perceived resources and the influences of some others in the same conditions, I was in a self-perpetuating state of poverty for a while. I got better by changing my environment and the people who were influences. Unfortunately, a lot of people have bigger difficulties changing their environment.
Cognition is sometimes a factor in poverty. In my case, there were multiple cognitive factors. The childhood influences were a factor. When focused, I was quite smart and readily excelled at my endeavors. But some of my lack of focus and my reactionary tendencies were results of conditioning which I had to overcome. I also found that I fell in with other people who had rather chaotic states of mind. I managed to alter the conditions but I knew others who fell into even worse mental states. Much of what I describe here are "soft" cognitive issues which can be positively altered. But I think that it is also worth noting that there are various "hard" cognitive issues. My brother is an overt example. He is capable of living on his own but his 8 year old psychological state prevents him from progressing much beyond a minimal existence. His is a more extreme case but neurological conditions, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, can be factors in poverty.
Government doesn't adequately look at the complexity. It's politically expedient to focus on singular causes or solutions while neglecting others. Deal with the issues most popular with the voters being pursued but don't tread too much into areas which need elevation of the public's perceptions. It's easier for some politicians to blame the top 10% and company CEO's while minimizing the problems with the rest of company culture. It's politically useful for others to blame the poor in a general sense without getting into the environmental, cultural and cognitive factors involved. It's easier to blame the poor when an inadequately designed program fails than admit the failings of the program. One experience which I had with the government was when a work program was created for people in need. I applied and was accepted. I was given a set amount of money in advance and paid it back by working for the city. An additional requirement was that I had to show that I had applied for a set number of jobs each week. But the work assignments made that difficult. The work schedule was something like 8 - 5. I was assigned to outdoor work crews. After a full day of sweat and dirt, I was still expected to apply for a set number of jobs. But it was too difficult to apply for a lot of work which I could qualify for because I needed to clean up first. This was an example of a good idea with rigid rules applied to an overly simplified plan.
But I think that people involved in the government and even charity groups would deal with more of the complexity if the voting public also did so. Politicians get on bandwagons because it is easy to get segments of the voting public onto bandwagons. This goes far beyond just the subject of poverty. In a sense, some of the cognitive factors which influence some people in poverty also affect the voting public. Too much of the voting public lack willingness or ability to focus on details. And they tend to be easily riled up to feverishly support reactionary policies rather than detailed multi-pronged strategies. This all allows some politicians and politically motivated media to mislead and misdirect.
More reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
http://dana.org/News/Poverty_and_Cognition__How_the_Poor_Get_Poorer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/poverty-strains-cognitive-abilities-opening-door-for-bad-decision-making-new-study-finds/2013/08/29/89990288-102b-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html?utm_term=.12ab9659f3ed
http://thepsychreport.com/research-application/featured-research/the-cognitive-burden-of-poverty/
