Poverty and Post-Welfare Era - Research Paper Example

? Poverty Poverty Each passing day, the world witnesses various efforts meant to alleviate poverty in the contemporary societies. Some of these efforts range from delivering people from pangs of hunger to providing better education, transportation, and employment opportunities for the world poor. These efforts are from the government, non-governmental organizations, and financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In this case, these organizations use disparate efforts in eradicating poverty and ensuring that the economic inequality between the world poor and rich grows smaller. However, most of these organizations seek solutions to poverty without addressing the key contributing factors to poverty. In this case, such organizations address the key contributing factors investigate the economic factors that contribute to poverty and effectively ignore the social factors contributing to poverty. Thus, the society tends to treat poverty as an economic problem but rather than an interconnection between the day-to-day social and economic prevailing conditions. In this regard, this expose addresses the social aspects that maintain poverty and propagate economic inequality among the world’s population. In the preceding years, focus towards fighting poverty and eradicating poverty were on providing economical means for the poor people to survive, which contributed to the development of the welfare system in America. However, the end of the welfare system meant that other methods towards ending poverty were of the essence towards ending poverty. In this case, focus shifted towards “the behavior, culture, and demographic characteristics of poor people than on the characteristics of the broader social structure, political culture, and economy that foster such high rates of poverty” (O’Connor, 2000, p. 548). In effect, this approach ensures that there is more economic inequality and the gap between the rich and poor continues to expand. According to O’Connor (2000), there has been a “sudden transformation of all those former welfare recipients into the working poor” (p. 548). In effect, this sudden transformation, of this group, is one of the main reasons that focus on eradicating poverty should shift towards the characteristics in the aforementioned. There has been a stagnating perspective on the incomes of the middle and lower class in the societies. In addition, it is evident that there are economic problems that nations, including the United States, encounter each day. In effect, the stagnant incomes and economic problems are two areas that should have been the focus of welfare reformers. Instead, welfare reformers focused on “eliminating dependency” (O’Connor, 2000, p. 549). As a result, this wrong area of focus in eradicating poverty has ensured that the economic gap keeps on increasing each day, and there is maintenance of the status quo. Krugman (1992) and Wolff (1995) support this by noting that there has been an increasing concentration of wealth amongst the top 5%, and more so among the 1% of this population (as cited in O’Connor, 2000, p 549). There are various reasons to economic inequality, which is ever growing each passing day. However, the fundamental reason is “a mismatch between the skills of less educated workers and the demands of better-paying, technology-driven jobs” (O’Connor, 2000, p. 550). In this regard, it is evident that the current economic society requires better-trained people who occupy the best paying jobs. In addition, the well paying job are an influence of technology, which ensures the less educated do not obtain the jobs due to the sharp digital divide between the less educated and those more educated. There is a tendency by the society to ignore the issue of the effects of social factors such as gender, class, and race on poverty. In effect, the primary area of concentration is on economic policies while paying scanty or little attention to these broader social issues of gender, class, and race. It is evident that there have been gains by women concerning their increase in employment opportunities and increase in earnings. However, it is also evident “not all women have shared equally-and some not at all-in the gains” (O’Connor, 2000, p. 550). In this case, the economic inequality, which is the same as poverty to a far extent, remains high because of this gender issue. According to O’Connor (2000), race limits opportunities for lower class families and racial inequalities perpetuate and continue reinforcing poverty (p. 551). Primarily, race plays a role towards poverty through the racial residential segregation, which ensures that the poor in minority neighborhoods have few chances and opportunities for jobs (O’Connor, 2000, p. 551). In this case, the high paying jobs go to individuals and people from backgrounds that have better opportunities, which ensure that the inequality gap becomes bigger each day. Secondly, race and segregation play a crucial role during the hiring process and employers tend to ignore minorities during their hiring process (O’Connor, 2000, p. 551). In addition, the policies towards internal promotions and supervisory practices do not favor minorities in most cases. In effect, segregation practices ensure a growing divide between the poor and rich thus propagating poverty in the society. Finally, the policies on education, social services, transportation, and employment have helped maintain and perpetuate poverty among the minorities (O’Connor, 2000, p. 551). Indeed, this might be one reason that led to the social welfare system, which mainly targeted the minorities. Hence, the social welfare system enhanced social stratification that propagates poverty amongst the non-white minority groups. According to Duncan (1999), maintaining a social class was an ingredient to perpetuating and maintaining the status quo on poverty (as cited in O’Connor, 2000, p. 554). In this case, the rich want to maintain their lifestyles while the poor want to make ends meet. Hence, the rich have a big pool of poor workers who depend on them for their livelihood. On the other hand, the rich will depend on the poor for maintaining their social lifestyles and ensuring their industries and profits are stable. In effect, this form of interdependency works for the mutual benefit of the two groups but only benefits the rich more and helps maintain the status quo since the poor continue being poorer (O’Connor, 2000, p. 554). In conclusion, it is evident that it is important to shift focus to the social factors while dealing with poverty. In this case, poverty and the ever-growing gap between the rich and poor are a result of social problems as well as economic problems. Hence, the lack of attention to these social factors enhances poor public policy aimed at achieving eradicating poverty and decreasing economic inequality. Factors such as gender, class, and race are the most important factors to consider. Besides, it is also important to consider other social factors such as politics, which lead to policies on efforts meant to eradicate poverty. Reference O’Connor, A. (2000). Poverty Research and Policy for the Post-Welfare Era. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 547-562. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/223456 Read More