Sociology

The levels of poverty vary from community too community. This has been attributed to the demographic factors like the link between power and wealth, social structures and political will and stability among societies. A person living in poverty in the US is way far above one living in poverty in a developing nation. This is attributed to the considerable investment by the Federal Government in poverty reduction initiatives since 1963, when the war against poverty in the United States was launched. The initiative seeks to eliminate poverty through anti-poverty programs, such as financial assistance and provision of food, housing, and medical care among other services to the poor and low income earners in the American nation. The poor in America can thus be said to be living in relative poverty. Nevertheless, this initiative has been greatly compromised by the high number of low educated immigrants flooding the nation and benefiting from this initiative every year. In other words, poverty in America takes a race orientation with immigrants forming the majority. Women and the young are particular victims of this problem. Statistics show that over 50 percent of children from poor families lead a poverty stricken life.

On the other hand, the quality of life of a person living in poverty in a developing nation is worse. This is due to the generally high levels of poverty in these nations which limits the ability of their governments to invest in poverty reduction programs. This is further worsened by corruption and political and civil conflicts eminent in these nations, an element which leads to absolute poverty among the citizens. Therefore, such citizens are subject to relief aid, many times provided at the worst humanitarian state. Still, rampant poverty in developing nations can be attributed to the lack of support by the global community to these nations. Evidently, poor nations who are victims of civil conflict are prone to economic sanctions a factor which worsens the humanitarian crisis among its citizens. Just like in the US poverty in other nations is based on race especially among the minority communities. Given the eminent link between wealth and power in these nations, poverty is evidently hereditary with the feminine gender most affected (Eitzen et al 47). This is mainly due to gender based discrimination practices (or feminization of poverty) in the society.

Owing to the fact that poverty in America is caused by high rates of influx of low educated immigrants and capitalism, the best solution is to create the public awareness on the importance of education as well as ensuring high quality and affordable education to all members of the community. This move will enhance the chances of poor families to get well paying jobs thus realizing economic independence. For persons in developing nations, the absolute solution to the problem of poverty is the implementation of revolutionary policies which are non-discriminative. This call for having a strong political will in place as such will eliminate corruption while promoting equitable distribution of resources to all in the community. True socialism must be democratic, ensuring equality of access to opportunities for all (Eitzen 25). Through this, developing nations will enhance their internal and international relations and reduce civil conflicts a milestone to sustainable socio-economic development.

There are a number of challenges and ethical considerations about introducing family planning methods around the world. Family planning methods are subject to religious and cultural debates in the world. This is a compromise to their acceptability in the societies. Such could also be attributed to disparities in education, civilization, and public awareness across the global community. Capitalism and its concept of wealth and power is no doubt the main source of poverty persistence in the community. The reason for this is that it results in discriminative distribution of national resources always benefiting the political elite at the expense of the poor majority in the society (Eitzen et al 46).

The concept of bias of the system benefits is based on nativity, gender, age, race, and religion which are key cornerstones of persistence poverty in the society. In fact this is the reason why the poor are believed to pay more than the non-poor as they usually benefit less from their tax contributions to the governments (Eitzen et al 52-53).

There is a very close, negative but significant relationship between a countrys Gross National Product (GNP) and the population growth. Research findings indicate that nations with a high GNP have a low fertility rate as opposed to those with low GNP. The infant mortality rate and adult illiteracy rate is also high in nations with low per capita GNP. However, there is always a great risk for a sustainable economic development if a nation fails to replace its deaths with new births. Indeed, this is why many nations have adopted a two child per couple family planning policies. According to the existing statistics, poverty is mainly attributed to high birth rates, which limit the economic potential of providing quality education and lifestyle to children, thus breeding a culture of poverty in the society.

Lastly, the problem of a poor immigration policy in America is the major reason behind its inability to determine exact figures on the number of poor people. This is so, because both illegal and legal immigrants form the majority population living in poverty. Illegal immigration is increasingly becoming a problem in the US. Due to their illegal status some immigrants never participate in the anti-poverty programs and are therefore not documented.