“The combined wealth of the richest 1 percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year” (oxfam.org). Wealth distribution is a huge problem that the world faces today. There is an enormous gap between the rich and the poor. The gap between the rich and the poor will only increase if actions are not taken to stop it. Jo Goodwin Parker in her essay What is Poverty discusses the living conditions and lack of money to buy simple necessities that make it impossible for the poor to help them out of poverty. In On Dumpster Diving Lars Eighner explains how wasteful those with money are and the negative stereotypes that have been placed on the homeless. The image that we viewed in class depicts the struggle to break free from the …show more content…
chains of poverty when you have nothing and no one to help you. However there are a lot of aid organizations such as Oxfam and UNICEF that have been set up to help the poor fight their way out of poverty. However many people are under the belief that the poor should not be helped. Singer, a professor of bioethics, argues in his article The Singer Solution to World Poverty, that people should donate some of the money that they spend on luxuries to aid organizations such as Oxfam and UNICEF to help the poor. Prosperous people should donate to aid organizations because a lack of opportunities, resources and education makes it impossible for the poor to free themselves from the chains of poverty. People in extreme poverty are not able to escape because they do not have the same opportunities that people with money have.
The image that we viewed in class shows a woman and her child chained to a cross that has the word poverty written on it. The figures depicted in the image are running towards education but they lack the means to escape from the chains that are binding them to poverty. The depiction of poverty as something that people are chained to and are incapable of escaping shows that people in extreme poverty can not escape no matter how hard they try because they do not have the opportunities to break free. “They will turn to other boys who steal to get what they want. I can already see them behind the bars of their prison instead of behind the bars of my poverty. Or they will turn to the freedom of alcohol or drugs, and find themselves enslaved. And my daughter? At best, there is for her a life like mine” (Parker 4). This shows that the speaker is aware that her children have no opportunities in life to become something better and that they will end up being poor like her. The speaker in What is Poverty also discusses when she was in junior high and she had to quit to get a job because her mother needed her to help pay for food. This shows that the speaker was never given the chance to escape from poverty when she was young. Furthermore this shows that she understand what it is like to be caught in a cycle that you do not have the opportunity to escape. Aid …show more content…
organization help the poor by giving them the opportunity and the resources to break free from poverty. The poor lack the resources to escape from the chains of poverty while the rich have more than enough and are just throwing away any excess rather than helping the poor.
“The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters. Yes, we ate from them. Except for jeans, all my clothes came from Dumpsters. Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, a virgin male love doll, medicine, books, a typewriter, dishes, furnishings, and change, sometimes amounting to many dollars” (Eighner 2) This shows that people throw away a lot of things that are in good usable condition. With this much being thrown away if people donated a fraction of this excess to aid organizations rather than just throwing it away many poor people would be able to benefit because they are not able to buy these things for themselves. In What is Poverty Parker discusses all of the things that the poor do not have the money to buy. The list of things ranges from books and a jar of Vaseline to medicine and toothbrushes. This shows that those that have enough money to afford to buy luxuries are willing to throw things away because they do not understand that people are not able to buy the basic necessities for life. “There is no soap, no needles and thread, no hot water, no aspirin, no worm medicine, no hand cream, no shampoo. None of these things forever and ever and ever. So that you can see clearly, I pay twenty dollars a month rent, and most of the rest goes for food” (Parker 4). With out being able to
buy anything other than food it is impossible for the poor to break free from poverty because they must spend all of their time worrying about what they are going to eat for their next meal while those that are rich are willing to throw away perfectly good food rather than donate it to and organization to help people in need. The education system is supposed to be fair and give all students an equal chance to succeed regardless of the financial situation of the parents. However this is not the case. “But you say to me, there are schools. Yes, there are schools. My children have no extra books, no magazines, no extra pencils, or crayons, or paper and most important of all, they do not have health” (Parker 4). This quote from What is Poverty explains how children that come from families that have the money to buy them extra materials necessary to succeed are able to do better in school because they are able to study at home and they are able to attend all of their classes because when they get sick they are taken to the doctor and are given medication. Children of poverty however do not have the same opportunities to succeed in the classroom because they are constantly missing school due to various illnesses. The image that we viewed in class showed that education was unattainable for the woman and her child because they were shackled by poverty. This image shows that even when poor people put in the effort to get a good education they are unable to attain it because the chains of poverty are holding them back. Many people believe that education is away for people to break out of poverty. However the extremely poor can not use education to escape poverty because the level of education that they are receiving is much lower than that of the extremely rich. The poor do not receive the same level of education because they are often unable to finish school because their parents need them to get a job to help pay for food and rent. Jo Goodwin parker discusses this in her essay when she is talking about her life when she was a child. Prosperous people should donate to aid organizations because a lack of opportunities, resources and education makes it impossible for the poor to free themselves from the chains of poverty. The poor lack the ability to break free of poverty because so many of the opportunities that appear to be available in the world for all to take advantage of are, in reality, only available for those with money to pay for them. Donating to aid organizations is a good way to help the poor because they provide a structured way for the poor to get the help that they need. The poor are in need of help from aid organizations such as Oxfam and UNICEF because the world is run by those with money and if your do not have money you do not have the ability to do anything for yourself. This is because the world revolves around money and the world is controlled by those that have money. By controlling the world those with money control access to resources opportunities and education.
According to Mayberry (2009) Lars Eighner, a graduate of the University of Texas, became homeless in 1988 and again in 1995 (p. 351). Some of the accounts from Travels with Lisbeth (1993), a book by Lars Eighner, depicted what he went through and what he found during his homeless state. A homeless person must eat and sleep but may not know where or when this might happen next. The human will to survive enabled Eighner to eat food from a dumpster, reach out to other for handouts, and sleep in places other than a bed with covers.
Poverty is a difficult and horrible way to grow up in life. It causes people to become stressed, and terrified of the world. It also demonstrates the ugly side of the world. When you ae in poverty. It causes people to become desperate and do horrendous things like murder, rape, and prostitution. But poverty can also produce strong, determined, and hopeful humans. In Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus by Carolina Maria de Jesus, we see the ambitious mother of three living the daily struggle of living in the poor favelas in Brazil. She provides the best life she can to her kids, while also perusing her dream of becoming a writer. In Testimony: Death of a Guatemala City by Victor Montejo, the readers follow the inspirational
Didion and Eighner have different styles of writing, but they both created writings with an instructional component. In both pieces of literature, they guide the audience like a mother to child, guiding us step by step in order to perfect the outcome. Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook” teaches the reader on how to keep note of the past through a notebook. “On Dumpster Diving” written by Lars Eighner, teaches the reader how to successfully dumpster dive and survive. However, Eighner’s piece included many details, whereas Didion’s ideas used examples by flowing from one top to another. It could also be said that Lars Eighner’s piece creates a more thorough analysis on how to dumpster dive. In spite of the fact that the pieces of literature
Homelessness is increasing every year and effecting Americans of different age, ethnicity and religion. In Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” he explains what he went through while being homeless. He describes how and what foods someone should be looking for and to always be conscious of what one is eating because there is always a reason why something has been thrown out. He continues to go into detail about other items that can be found in the dumpster like sheets to sleep on and pieces of paper to write on. Things that can keep him busy through the day. Eighner carefully explains to his readers how being a dumpster diver has become a life style for the homeless and this is how they survive. It’s a way of living and they are comfortable doing it. “I began dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless” (Eighner 713). He tries to bring us into the world of being homeless. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in that situation, and how could surviving as a dumpster diver be a way of survival? As a dumpster diver, Eighner is able to tell us what is ok to eat and have and what is not ok for your health. His essay starts by uttering some guidelines of what is and is not safe to eat. “Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using common sense for evaluating the food, knowing the dumpsters of the given areas and always ask, “Why was this discarded?” (Eighner 714).
A) Lars Eighner, in “On Dumpster Diving”, portrays the waste that is accumulated due to modern consumerism and materialism. He also demonstrates the issue of the wage gap. Consumers of the modern age spend too much and therefore waste too much. In the essay, Eighner describes life as an scavenger and demonstrates how people are able to live by the minimal resources. “Scavengers” are able to survive on the waste of the consumer. Eighner presents this scenario as a contrast to the life of a modern consumer, in order to portray it’s unnecessary wastefulness. Mainly, food seems to be taken lightly by society, as Eighner as a scavenger finds “a half jar of peanut butter”,
Step 3: 1. Eighner introduces his arguments through the use of narrative stories and his own personal experiences. He uses this technique to let the reader see firsthand how some people are able to survive off what is carelessly thrown away by others who take what they own for granted. Eighner illustrates this point on page 1, “The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters. Yes, we ate from Dumpsters. Except for jeans, all my clothes can from Dumpsters. Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, medicine, books, a typewriter… I acquired many things from the Dumpsters.”
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
However, she never really experienced the actual life of living in poverty as the majority of people living in poverty experience. Barbara, an educated white women had just that on other people living in poverty, because of the color of her skin and education level that is more often than not restricted from people living in poverty. She was able and more qualified for jobs than other people living amongst the status she was playing. She also was able to more readily seek better benefits than people living in poverty. When she first start her journey in Florida she had a car, a car that in most cases people living in poverty do not have. She was also able to use the internet to find local jobs and available housing in the area that many people living in poverty are restricted from. Another great benefit she had was the luxury of affording a drug detox cleansing her of drugs deemed bad. Many people living in poverty do not have much extra cash laying around much less fifty dollars to afford a detox for prescription drugs. She also had the luxury to afford her prescription drugs, another option that many people living in poverty do not have. Another element that made Barbara’s experience not that genuine was the fact that she was not providing for anybody other than herself. Twenty-two percent of kids under the age of 18 are living below the poverty line (http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/#5) , Barbara did not have to provide for pets or kids which would of changed her experience altogether of living in poverty. Not to belittle Barbara’s experience, but many factors of what life is like living in poverty were not taken into consideration during her
“The world holds enough to satisfy everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed,” Mahatma Gandhi once astutely observed. In a few carefully chosen words, Gandhi pointed out the reason behind economic tension. For example, “Poverty, hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, preventable disease, polluted air and water, and most of the other ills that beset humanity have the same root cause: the inequitable distribution of the planet's wealth and resources” (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, All social and economic problems caused by an unfair distribution of wealth). Additionally, our economic system—unregulated capitalism—advocates and defends a wantonly unequal distribution of wealth. For instance in 2010, “The top 400 people (.0000013% of the population) held more wealth than the bottom 60% combined” (Brian Rogel, Unequal Distribution of Wealth). The top 1 percent has grown richer while inversely affecting the general population. “From 1983-2009 the bottom 60% have had a decrease in both their perce...
To some, poverty means a lack a lack of options and prospects while simultaneously being looked down on by others, which creates low self-esteem. Others would argue that being in poverty is an inability of a human being to effectively contribute to society. There is, however, a definition of poverty that should not be overlooked. Although oftentimes poverty is negative, it should not always be looked at as such, especially when one’s needs are met; for some poverty is an individual choice and defining one as a success or failure because of one’s economic standing is entirely a personal matter.
... Although it may not seem fair that there are rich people blowing money on impractical and meaningless things while living in poverty, it’s a reality that the United States has experienced for centuries. Works Cited Desilver, Drew. A. “U. S. Income Inequality, On The Rise.” Pew Research Center.
“Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” written by Robert Reich, describes as the title says, why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. In Reich’s essay he delves into numerous reasons and gives examples of each. It makes one wonder if the world will continue on the path of complete economic separation between the rich and the poor.
In the world today there is a lot of poverty. There is a great divide
There are many rich and poor people in the world today, in our own country and in others. We have classified by how much they can afford and they are put into a class system. It’s hard for everyone in a country to be equal in the sense of how much money they make. Adriana Delgado says, “The vast differences between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, will be the catalyst for the best intentions to be rewarded with ungratefulness and contempt, creating resentment and mistrust between the classes.” there is always going to be problems between the rich and poor, because one sometimes is held higher than the
In conclusion, sometimes actions take place that changes a person’s outlook on life and as you can see poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/ her.