Poverty Viewed in Functionalism Essay

Social problems are the conditions which are caused by factors in the social order that disadvantage or harm a segment of the population and are viewed as unacceptable by the general society. Poverty is regarded as the main social problem in various societies.

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From the two articles of the popular press, poverty is regarded as an epidemic in our modern society. It has many unfortunate side effects such as unemployment, homeless among women and orphans, hunger, crime and in some extreme case it can lead to death (Sachweh, 2011). People living in poverty may run a gamut of big emotions, and they feel helpless, abandoned, hopeless and ashamed. Poverty is generally an extremely difficult situation to endure mentally, and it's even harder to pull out of it as well. Furthermore, depending on who you speak to, various individuals seem to have a wide variety of opinions on poverty's cause and its possible cures. From this article, there are different views and opinions of the three groups of individuals on how they view poverty. From the fictionist perspective of sociology, it is stated that certain individuals in America are taking further steps to end poverty others seem to turn a blind eye because it does not affect them personally.

The modern society can intervene and assist individuals who are living in poverty by enhancing access to education and training opportunities, increasing job opportunities, and by availing affordable housing (Gorski, 2016). Additionally, these approaches can result in the creation of more job opportunities which will allow people who live in poverty to find a means of providing for their families.

During the UN world summit on the social development, the "Copenhagen Declaration" stated that poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of the basic human needs such as safe drinking water, food, health, sanitation facilities, education, shelter as well as adequate information (Sachweh, 2011). Also, when people are unable to feed themselves properly, go to school or access adequate health care, then they are considered to be in abject poverty, regardless of their daily income. The social disorganization theory states that certain factors such as economic deprivation, high in multi-housing such as apartments, high family disruption, i.e. high rates of divorce, the single-parent family often lack resources as well as skills to help children escape delinquency and develop self-control (Gorski, 2016). As a result of this, the poverty cycle continues generation after generation.

From the social journals, it examines the cause of poverty from different standpoints of various disciplines such as humanities, social sciences, interdisciplinary fields as well as the professions such as social work, health, education and law. The article review provides scholarly perspectives associated with the structural causes of poverty. It also examines the relationship between poverty and inequality, for example, human rights and social justice (Weiner, 2011). From the social science journal, the study reviewed the causes of poverty in African countries. It's stated that the poverty in Africa is caused by some factors such as corruption, poor governance, poor resource usage, poor World Bank and IMF policies and also wars and constant conflicts. Poor people cannot access relevant skills and knowledge, personal developments and education that can enhance their livelihood. The study concluded that poverty could be fought in the availability of strong institutions, equitable distribution of public resources and strong government. However, in the African countries, various programs designed to fight poverty amongst citizens are not fully implemented since the funds and aids end up in the hands of corrupt leaders who pocket a huge sum of amounts.

Poverty is considered as the oldest and the most consistent virus that brings about harmful diseases in the African countries. Its rate of killing disadvantaged children cannot be compared to any disease since it is worse than EBOLA, HIV/AIDS and malaria (Haberman, 2010). From the functionalist perspective, the theory interprets that each segment of the society is about its contribution to the stability of the general society. Moreover, Functionalism states that everything; extraneous, irrelevant or distinct is essential to the overall utility. Poverty, according to fictionist perspective, encompasses two various functions, i.e. fictionists motivates us to work harder than before to kick out poverty. More so if people want to achieve success, then we should know how to manage everything and work hard. It's stated that working with sweat is much recommended than working with poverty hence people should strive to work harder to move away from the poverty line. Despite the commitment over the last 15 years to poverty reduction as the main objective, the progress to this end is still disappointing (Haberman, 2010). It is most evident in the extent to which every country is off the track to achieve the Millennium development goals. Due to this small progress, it raises fundamental questions about the strategies as well as the policies that have been adopted to achieve poverty reduction in Africa and other key international issues such as debt, aid and trade.

Conclusion

Poverty has so far become an epidemic in our society. Its side effects such as unemployment, crime, hunger, homeless among the women and also death have severely affected our society. Due to poverty, people do feel hopeless, ashamed, helpless and abandoned. Hence poverty is an extreme situation to endure mentally, and also it's harder to pull out of it.

Works cited

Sachweh, Patrick. "The moral economy of inequality: popular views on income differentiation, poverty and wealth." Socio-Economic Review 10.3 (2011): 419-445.

Gorski, Paul C. "Poverty and the ideological imperative: A call to unhook from deficit and grit ideology and to strive for structural ideology in teacher education." Journal of Education for Teaching 42.4 (2016): 378-386.

Weiner, Bernard, Danny Osborne, and Udo Rudolph. "An attributional analysis of reactions to poverty and the political ideology of the giver and the perceived morality of the receiver." Personality and Social Psychology Review 15.2 (2011): 199-213.

Haberman, Martin. "The pedagogy of poverty versus good teaching." Phi Delta Kappan 92.2 (2010): 81-87.