Opinion: The “Poverty Trap”: Is it Real?
posted by Oliver D. Bentley | March 21, 2022 | In News, OpinionResearchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology say: yes, the poverty trap is real. In a study of 6,000 households, the researchers found that families needed a certain amount of assets in order to grow wealth, meaning that if you don’t have the means to improve your situation, you can’t.
This shows the flaws in assumptions that people are poor because of inherent character flaws such as laziness, as opposed to the idea that people are locked into poverty due to social circumstances that keep them impoverished.
When we look at poverty, it is well established that poverty tends to recreate itself across generations. It does so for various reasons. To begin, those in poverty lack the resources to pay for a college education and may not even know how to begin the process of higher education. Also, these individuals lack the same connections that provide inroads to a solid well-paying career that their counterparts higher up the socioeconomic ladder may have. Another solid point is that those in poverty must work long hours for little pay simply to put food on the table. This doesn’t allow for those in poverty to afford, nor to have the time and energy to create wealth by continuing their education or investing in markets.
Many point to violence, drug use, and the like as evidence of a flawed character that creates its own poverty. However, I believe it is poverty that causes these different social ills. Even those who live in poverty seek to find value in themselves. When society strips them of all acceptable value and does not allow them to achieve acceptable value, those in poverty develop their own system of values based on what is available to them– which isn’t much at all. This
social ostracization, in turn, creates alternative values such as being feared or being fearless. In this sense, those in poverty turn to violence as a means to create value for themselves. Drug use may be a means to express fearlessness in an attempt to validate themselves.
Ultimately, those in poverty may completely abandon the idea of gaining wealth and adopt a unique subculture that rejects the mainstream way of doing things simply because they do not have the avenues for success available to them. Thus, creating a cycle of poverty that continues through generations.
Imagine yourself as a middle-class individual who has access to resources to pay for higher education or to invest in business or markets. You have connections to high value careers. You have also been brought up to value higher education and to understand the processes involved in attaining that education.
Now imagine that you were born into poverty. You have no way to pay for a higher education or to invest. You have no real connections to a better paying career. Your upbringing held the view that higher education was something you could not have so there is no need to understand the processes involved.
I believe it only takes a little common sense to see how those in poverty become trapped in a cycle of poverty when we view the matter this way. So, the next time you see an individual struggling to survive try not to judge them based off some inherent flaw that only exists in your mind. Instead think of their situation, think of their struggles, think of the society that offers them no upward mobility whatsoever, and love the person.
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