Roles Within Economic Integrity
Roles Within Economic Integrity
Roles Within Economic Integrity
AP Seminar
Ginger Duong
Introduction
Poverty, whether one knows it or not, is existent throughout a number of societies. It can be broken down into two types, absolute poverty and relative poverty. Those in extreme cases where they struggle with survival, fall under absolute poverty. The more common poverty to affect people in different communities is considered to be relative, where an individual may be living just barely by pay to pay. Aside from numbers claiming 1 billion children live in poverty, there are far more reasons as to why it is a growing social issue that is in everyone’s best interest to solve.
Society has always looked down upon the homeless. Those so misfortunate do not only suffer from the detrimental physical effects of poverty, but also the stigma surrounding them that is created by the ignorant. Some choose to believe that being in destitution is a choice made by those who are lazy and uneducated, and if they really wanted to, could help themselves out of what would be considered an individual’s problem. A job is not enough to keep people out of poverty. People are considered poverty stricken when their income is enough for survival, but not enough to provide them with the same standard of living as the rest of their community (Galbraith). In 2011, forty-four percent of Canadians in a low income household had only one person working. This hardship can be blamed on the structure of the job market which does not consider mental illness, addictions, disability, and discrimination based on gender, race, age, or sexual orientation; while also being inaccessible to those who have always been poor and have not had equal access to education, mentorship opportunities, or the networks that often lead to a job (Vandergrift). In an estimate done by the Canadian Mental Health Associate, they claim at least 70-90 percent of Canadians with a serious mental illness are unemployed. A good job may help one climb out of poverty, but is not easy to come by and traps the poor below the poverty line.
As established, the structure of the economic system is partly to blame as for why the poor seem to stay poor and which keeps the rich, rich. Poverty is a cycle that can be passed down by each generation and for the most part explains why children with poor parents will most likely end up in the same financial state. The cycle begins with a child growing up in poverty who now understandably lacks education and skills to find a well paying job, and leads to no escape from the poverty cycle. The only difference now is that the child now holds the responsibility of being the breadwinner in the family, who will have offspring that continues the cycle. In Canada, 1 in every 5 children are living in conditions of poverty according to UNICEF. This sequence of events is not just a financial problem, but also a psychological one that causes individuals various...
