Politics of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy - Essay Example

Empowerment of low income earners has to be done so that the poor can be able to access resources that are raw materials for development. The poor lack power to get the desired resources. This situation worsens when the psychological status of these poor people is touched by powerlessness. Poverty makes the means of accumulation of resources through saving impossible to the poor people. This is because the avenues to save require some structures that have a monetary value. Poverty reduces a person’s power to compete for a resource because it influences the thinking and the power of these people (O’Brien and Finn 1).

This work will seek to show that the poor can be involved in transforming the situations of their lives even in the current political atmosphere. The poor and the middle class earners are faced with various problems that cause them to join into movement to form a force that can prevail in collective bargaining. The economic recession was heavily felt among those who had not organized themselves into groups that could foster poverty alleviation. Low income earners, therefore, realized the difficulty to cause impact at individual levels.

Poverty denies the poor opportunities to make choices. As a result, the little they had was subjected to risk of loss when they put it in simple projects. In response to economic recession, the poor resorted to various ways to alleviate their situation. The low income earners’ response to poverty was facilitated by their position in terms of power where they lacked power to influence policy formulation and implementation. The poor are more than the rich in any state and their number can be used as a means to change the policies.

The low income earners can be able to secure a place in development in the current political context since they are the best people who know the pressure at which they are subjected in their position. Poor people understand projects that would work for them. This is because in most cases projects by the rich come with levels of sophistication that the poor do not put up with. Through calculated collaborations, low income earners can be able to claim their rights from higher political powers, seek donors to fund projects centered on alleviation of poverty, and seek government intervention in their conditions.

According to O’Brien and Finn (22-23), although the poor had responded in various ways to recession, very few of the poor went to seek financial aid from their governments or any financial institution or claimed unemployment or even protested against the government in claim of their rights. The methods most of the low income earners used as a means to respond to recession was by cutting cost, increasing the daily working hours and some went ahead to selling some of their properties (O’Brien and Finn 18).

Although grouping and working to collectively bargain for formulation and implementation of policies that are friendly to them is advisable, individual response to poverty alleviation was a means that worked during the recession times. The methods they used in response to increased requirement collectively showed that low income earners have a commanding position in the current political context. In their individualized position, low income earners managed to reduce pressure posed by the increased cost of goods and services during the economic recession.

As a politicized group, the low