Poverty: Social, Economic and Political Implications - Essay Sample

Introduction

Poverty refers to lacking enough material possessions or revenue for individuals' needs. Poverty may be in terms of social, economic, or political views. When someone termed under absolute poverty, then it means that he/she cannot meet the basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter. However, poverty can also be classified to be relative and involves when an individual cannot reach a certain living standard when compared to others in a particular setting over time and place (Lee & Briggs, 2019). Many government and non-governmental organizations have tried to reduce poverty, but as the world and technology evolve, so does the levels of poverty. However, poverty in Canada has been at a higher rate. In India, one individual out of seven lives in poverty, amounting to 4.9 million individuals estimated to have abysmal living standards and cannot meet their basic needs.

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Poverty tends to spread across the community, and many avoid being in this states. However, the people who tend to be affected by poverty tend to be the elderly, disabled, single parents, racialized communities, and the youths, the vulnerable groups. Canada spends billions of dollars annually, trying to resist poverty, and yet employment levels have increased by 50% over the past two decades. However, with the growing employment rate studies shows that between 1998 and 2005, the least wealthy Canadian's earning has dropped by 20%. People living in poverty in Canada have increased over the past 25 years, where the annual national investment in housing has encountered a decrease of 46%, and yet the population growth of the country has risen by 30%.

People With Disabilities

Canada, like every country in the world, has people with disabilities. The level of poverty with the people under this category tends to persist over time. The government and non-governmental organizations tend to help these individuals, but the level of poverty tends to persist. In the whole population of Canada, 15% are individuals with disabilities living in poverty, and under this category, 59% of them are women. Research has shown that people living with disabilities, either mentally or physically, are twice likely to encounter poverty levels and live below the poverty line. When the rate of men with disabilities is high, and they tend to be living below the poverty line, then it will be hard to solve poverty issues.

Further research shows that the number of individuals with disabilities and mental illness are homeless and are about 45% of the overall homeless population. These make it harder for the country to solve poverty issues, and it leads to continuous spend of higher costs, yet the poverty levels keep increasing. However, children with disabilities are twice likely to have homesteads and get social assistance from other people than older people. Therefore individuals living in poverty in Canada can reduce if it was only kids as more aged people rarely get social help and support.

Single Parents

Many single parents tend to have problems raising income for their children and providing basic needs, and this is the people in Canada living in poverty. Research, however, shows that 21% of single mothers in Canada are having problems meeting their daily needs and live below the poverty levels. Raising children under this state has become difficult due to high rates of unemployment and a lack of a supportive environment. Moreover, 7% of single fathers in Canada are raising their children through poverty, and others are homeless (Loopstra & Tarasuk, 2015). Women who have children are in their shelters are twice likely to encounter hardship than two-parent families.

The first nations, Inuit individuals and the Metis, the indigenous persons are overrepresented in Canada as the poorer and homeless population in all cities in the country. Among the shelter users, between 28% to 34% are indigenous individuals as they are the practitioners of unique cultures and tend not to get enough social support due to the way they relate to people and the environment. Poverty tends to persist in the lives of these individuals since the entire group or culture is prone to poverty. The poverty level, however, continues to endure due to low education levels and the loss of jobs for most individuals. Yet studies show that people in Canada who experience poverty levels like a decrease in wage tend to recover after some time.

The percentage of Canadians in low income by gender as per the 1976 to 2014 statistics shows that women have had a significant increase in their employment levels, and the employment rates are still under the men's rate of 65%. In analyzing the poverty levels by age and individuals above 65 years, then the low-income cut-offs started in 1992 after-tax implications. Canadians tend to experience poverty for a short time and tend to improve their revenue levels within a year. Statistics carried out in 2005 to 2010 showed that only 1.5 % of Canadians live below the poverty line due to low-income cut-offs. Canada does not have poverty levels than other countries as the rate of Canadians living in consistent poverty over the last decade had reduced by half. The data below shows the persistence of low-income earners over the years.

In 2014 statistics, children over half a million were living in poverty levels, and below the living income cut off. The vulnerable groups, however, in Canada, living below the income rate, are about 8.85, while others have higher income rates. Further studies show that the aged individuals, the disabled, and the indigenous group have a higher percentage of living under the poverty lines and are more likely to be inferior compared to the whole population in a particular area. In today's world, education gives an individual a higher chance of getting a good job and better pay (Allen & Farber, 2019). The First nation's individuals living in rural areas and within the territories have helped many to avoid living in poverty. It is through having access to band houses, and income is unlikely to be spending on rental payments.

The unemployment rate of the indigenous groups is higher in the whole population of Canada as the individuals above the age of 15 living in rural areas had an unemployment structure of 25.2%, and the Inuit rate is 19.6%. In Canada, however, poverty rates decrease as education level increases, especially in reserves. The challenged people have higher risks of living in poverty due to a lot of barriers they have, and it becomes hard for them to work. In 2012, over one million individuals in Canada were not in employment at the age of 15 to 64years. In this number, 18% of the disabled individuals found it hard to work, and the work modification did not allow them to get paid or carry out any business (McIntyre, Dutton, Kwok & Emery, 2016). However, 6% of them retired because they were prevented from working, and under this rate, 72% had severe disability issues, and 32% received social help from the community.

Moreover, 55% of the individuals who retired did not look for jobs in the next year and permanently retired, and their main reason for this was disability issues. However, many disabled individuals in Canada were willing to work but found difficulty in the workplace where the environment was not supportive and suitable and experienced a lot of discrimination in the labor market. Among the single parents, 23.4% of them lived in poverty levels, and 72% of unattached Canadians lived the worst lives below the poverty line (Desapriya & Khoshpouri, 2018). In racialized families, 1 out of 5 lived in high poverty levels when compared to 1 of 20 non-racialized families. However, the racialized women in poverty states had a double chance of working in manufacturing industries than other women living under these conditions.

Moreover, racialized women earn 32% less than what they work for in the workplace, and about 15% of elderly single individuals find it had to meet their daily and basic needs. However, over 2 million individuals above the age of 18 years have guaranteed and fixed income supplement and live on a rate of about 17,000 dollars annually. Children under the age of 18 years have a high percentage of being very poor compared to the elderly. In 2014 statistics, 1.3 million children live in deplorable conditions, and the pace is 1 in 5 children. Indigenous children living in poverty status are 40%, and 60% of them are from rural areas. Poverty, however, in Canada has led to food insecurity where many individuals have limited access to food and about 4 million individuals in Canada experience high levels of food insecurity.

Poverty levels continue to persist in Canada, for example, through the wide-ranging effect on health as 1 of 10 individuals can afford full medical prescriptions, and Canada remains to be the only industrialized country with a universal healthcare system but without solutions to individuals' physical and mental health. Poverty, however, is beyond the income of individuals and understanding how poverty affects Canadians, then it is essential to consider how other factors such as housing, food health, and crime. Generally, these conditions determine the level of standards of many individuals and their affordability (Power, 2017). Individuals living in poverty levels tend to be affected by various diseases and may not afford proper healthcare facilities. For example, women working in lower-income levels are twice likely to suffer from lung cancer, unlike their peers with high-level income. Poverty life tends to affect the overall economy, health, and challenges, including food sufficiency and poor conditions.

High poverty levels also affect the individual of Canada by limiting them to have access to proper health care, for instance, an individual walking into a health care facility to address mental and physical issues. In 2014 analytics, 10% of individuals out of 13% had sought medical attention and did not find full prescriptions as they could not afford it. Under criminal cases, poverty in Canada has forced many individuals to involve in illegal activities. From 2002 to 2014, 76 victims of violence out of 1,000 individuals were reported. Generally, many men tend to engage in illicit activities than women to find finances for meeting the basic needs. The indigenous women reported high cases of violence, as 115 incidences of sexual assaults traced for every 1000 indigenous women.

The groups of people likely to be affected by poverty levels in Canada are children, the vulnerable groups: indigenous people, people with disabilities, recent immigrants, single parents, and unattached individuals at the age of 45 to 64. The Canadian government in 2015 announced that 5,956,320 Canadians live below the poverty line and have an average income of 15,880 dollars (Smith & Lawlor, 2017). However, the majority of poverty levels in Canada are not stable and improves over time. The study showed that 36.9% of individuals in a poverty bracket would tend to change over the next year, and 1.5 of the Canadians became stagnant with the low income.

Canadians who are deemed high risk have high poverty level persistence and have different levels of concern. Other studies classify the poverty groups of Canada into five; individuals with activity limitations, the singles, persons in lone-parent families, individuals with less than high school education, and the visible immigrants. For many Canadians being in this group is not a prerequisite for low income but instead experiencing poverty when the rest of the population is at higher standards. The people living with poverty in Canada are at 9.5 % of the community as per the 2017 analysis, a reduction from 10.5% in 2016. Poverty levels can be reduced in modern society if the government creates job...