Effects Of Poverty On Society

Poverty and Its Effects

Introduction

As one of the biggest problems facing the world today, poverty continues to have significant negative implications for the society. The effects of poverty are extremely severe and far-reaching, so much so that it was one of the top Millennium Development Goals agreed upon at the Millennium Summit of the UN back in 2000 (Hatcher, 2016). To understand the effects that poverty has on the society, one must critically analyze the societies in which poverty is rampant, as well as analyze poverty from the relative perspectives that it presents. The core aim of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of poverty and elaborate on the diverse ways in which it continues to affect societies across the world.

The first and arguably most common effect of poverty on society is its financial impact (Veritta, 2008). In many of the societies that experienced significantly high levels of poverty, debt was increasingly common, and especially debt accrued from moneylenders (Hatcher, 2016). For many individuals living in poverty, access to financial services such as banking is often stifled and rudimentary, making it difficult for such individuals to access self-improvement loans at standard and fair rates (Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). For these individuals, moneylenders are the best option available, which results in them paying exorbitant interest rates. The interconnection between poverty and finance, however, is cyclic in nature. The lack of finances or access to financial services causes poverty, which in turn causes an isolation of individuals from finances and financial services (Hickey & du Toit, 2013). This makes poverty a fairly complex problem to

In many countries with high levels of poverty, universal healthcare is a myth and quality healthcare is often a reserve for the financially endowed. Because of this, the poor are forced to contend with below par healthcare services, which are still comparatively expensive. The inability to access regular and balanced meals often results in poor health among individuals in this populace, with chronic illnesses being very common (Hickey & du Toit, 2013). Unfortunately, the same can be said of education. Many children in poverty stricken areas often drop out of school at early ages to seek employment. This is often driven by the need for every member of the household to contribute towards family expenses (Hatcher, 2016; Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). As a result, these children do not enjoy the benefits of proper education, which often results in many of these children still living within the same poverty brackets as their