Solving Poverty
There are two main explanations to poverty, the cultural and structural. Sociologists mostly use the structural causes to explain the poverty in America. The cultural issue puts more fault and cause on the individual and the “culture” they create—making it seems like a repetitive cycle. Nonetheless, poverty is a very complex issue, even though culture and the individual do play a part, there is much more to it and thus the structural causes explanation comes in. With even the causations and explanation being so complex the solution must also be multi-faceted and flexible—being able to conform in many different situations and settings. Looking at history and seeing how others have faced the issue of poverty in their societies could lead us to find some answers. This paper will be studying zakat—a charitable tax found in Islam—and seeing if it can mitigate the plight of the poor in America.
The cultural argument states that poor people are raised to become poor. Their way of living—their culture—entraps them to the lowest class. The culture of poverty has traits such as laziness, no work ethic, and no responsibility. Looking at this, poverty can be blamed on families and thus the deterioration of social morals and ethics. In the end this explanation puts all the blame on individuals in that they themselves produce their situation by not getting out of it. This explanation has become a general excuse or belief in the U.S and can even be glimpsed in the rhetoric of policy-makers. It has become so common that there are phrases like—pull yourself up from your bootstraps. In a fashion this explanation also keeps the status quo making a kind of poverty caste system.
The structural causes explanation of poverty argue...
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...r something that has its source from Islam in their government. It can be seen from recent mosque protests that, even a place of worship comes to instill the fear of the sharia in people’s minds. Whereas sharia is something very complex and not a monolithic canon of law (it’s very flexible)—and most countries that say they practice it really don’t plus forget everyone else most Muslims don’t want a sharia themselves. Islam being such a controversial issue, it might not be possible to use zakat. However, the general idea was that society and individuals themselves are responsible for many aspects of poverty and it is their responsibility and duty to fix in the end for their own benefit.
Works Cited
Senturk, Omer Faruk. A Comprehensive Guide to Zakat Charity in Islam. New Jersey: The Light Inc., 2007.
Gohari, M. J. The Quran. Oxford: Quran Institute, 2007. Print.
Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.
Gorski, P. (2010/2011). The Myth of the Culture of Poverty. Annual Editions: Social Problems 10/11 , pp. 67-70.
All the approach strategies are useful. The most effective in fighting poverty would be the curative approach to poverty. This approach aims to end the chronic and persistent poverty by helping the poor to become more self-supporting through changes in their lives and their environment. It will break the cycle of poverty; the curative approach strives to initiate the poor into employment and later the middle class. The alternative strategies that has been developed that would be more effective in combating poverty is saving and accumulation of assets. These are important for purchasing a home, sending college, starting a small business, and reaching other economic goals. By having savings and accumulation assets and learning to live within
To start off the full title of Johnathan Swift’s writing is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Publick." From just reading the title in the book “A Modest Proposal”, I was thinking it was a story about romance and how a gentleman proposed marriage to his female lover. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these undernourished children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners. He does this to illustrate how backwards and bad the state of Ireland is and the social classes. For these reasons, he looks at the politicians to blame for the poor conditions because of the apathy they presented while in the decision making process, to resolve the conditions. Jonathan Swift he says that the people, politicians, and English were all to be at fault for the terrible state and poverty of Ireland.
The idea that people of poor communities conform to a living standard and behavior is a concept described by Oscar Lewis as the culture of poverty. It is the belief that poor people consists of their own beliefs and values and behaviors. And more than 45 years later after the term, the culture of poverty paradigm remains the same: there is a consistent and observable culture that is shared by people in poverty. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the culture of poverty. differences in behaviors and values among those that are poor are just as significant as those between wealthy and poor. The culture of poverty is a construct of smaller stereotypes which seem to have implanted themselves into the collective conscience of mainstream thought as undeniable fact. However, as we will see, nothing could be further from the truth. Based on 6 most common myths of what defines poor from wealthy, I will provide evidence to the contrary.
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
Muslims are expected to give alms to the Muslim community that amount to 2.5% of one’s income. The principle of knowing that all things belong to God is essential to purification and growth. Zakāt is obligatory for all Muslims who are able to do so. Currently,Muslims are living under secular governments and must pay taxes to them. So the zakat is in addition to their secular taxes. Because there is no central Islamic state, each person must choose where to give his money.
In the report A New Form of Social Dislocation in the Inner-City Ghetto, William Julius Wilson analyzes three research studies conducted in Chicago between 1986 and 1993. In these studies, Wilson identifies a new type of poverty, which he coins jobless poverty. Jobless poverty represents the growing number communities that are compromised of a high percentage of unemployed individuals. These communities have the same recurrent themes of isolation in inner-city ghettos where the surrounding area is abandon, desolate or deserted of economic opportunities and community benefits. In contrast to living in employed poverty or unemployed poverty in neighborhoods of high employment, jobless poverty causes negative effects that lead to individuals and their families becoming stuck in a continuous cycle of jobless poverty. As a result of these negative effects, it is important to consider policy solutions that would address this growing problem and provide opportunities for individuals to escape the cycle of jobless poverty. The most affective solutions to jobless poverty are more mixed-use developments and a larger public transportation networks.
The culture of poverty resonates from the social theory that elaborates on the cycle of poverty. This theory suggests that the poor do not lack resources but have acquired a poverty- value system. The marginalization of the poor due to their social status of an individual, has created a society that is a society based on the income or wealth they become class conscious. From the paper, it becomes apparent that the culture of poverty creates a prejudice attitude towards a group of people, as it encourages them to think that people are poor or rich because it is what they want. This paper has used examples of different times in history, to support its arguments.
These readings helped me understand the conditions before and after the implications of Zakah in Islamic religion. Even though it is a great idea that all people from all religion should practice this charity to help the poor. Unfortunately, the Zakah or Zakat is rarely practiced and some Muslims give Zakah privately, the reason for this is the confusion of how much should be given now. Since the amount when it was practiced centuries ago from older systems that measured the wealth from individual property. As stated by Sirat (1969, p. 319), “there is confusion among the concepts of Zakah, other alms, and taxes to the government. Many people believe that when they give money for taxes or alms it is the same as Zakah.” The idea of Zakah is not practices for the stated reasons. It is a gloomy thought to think that this is no longer practiced in a religion that had the great honor to act in the grace of Allah to help the
Causes and Solutions of World Poverty Poverty is prevalent throughout the world around us. We watch television and see famous people begging us to sponsor a child for only ten dollars a month. We think in our own minds that ten dollars is only pocket change, but to those children and their families, that ten dollars is a large portion of their annual income. We see images of starving children in far away countries, and our hearts go out to them. But we really do not know the implications of poverty, why it exists, or even what we can do to help combat this giant problem in our world.
Zakat is the third pillar of Islam. It is an Arabic word, and translates as purification or growth. It is generally thought of as a tax, as the contributor should pay 2.5% of their wealth to charity. However, Zakat is valued not because of the money given, but the motive behind it. The intentions for giving Zakat should be pure, and simply about pleasing Allah, and earning good deeds.
Poverty is one of critical issues that faced by many countries in this world nowadays. This problem incurred due to the inequality in the society which can be reduced by implementation of zakat. It has been supported by the study done by Kusuma and Sukmana (2010) that mentioned about the importance of zakat in the socio-economic framework of Islam and how it can be used to reduce the inequality in the society.
Social issues are problems in the society today that are described as wrong, widespread and changeable. A category of conditions that people believe need to be changed. Poverty is a serious social issue in the society today. According to Peilin (2012), poverty brings hardships to families and individuals as well as political thereby negatively affecting the social stability and social development and posing a severe threat to human security (p. 243). This paper focuses on poverty as a social issue in today’s society. First, it gives a succinct introduction of the social issue, and then describes how it fits into the field of sociology. It also evaluates the sociological theories and terminology that relate to the social issue. The section that follows evaluates what is known and unknown about the particular social issue. This is followed by a discussion regarding the value of sociological research into the issue determining the available or possible practical implications of the sociological inquiry. The information presented here is strongly supported by the concepts and theories derived from reliable sources.
Poverty is a major problem in the United States today. Social, economical, political, and cultural factors all contribute to poverty. Education and economic development are two major issues that will help prevent poverty. The United States Census Bureau defines poverty as an "economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain basic needs for food, housing, clothing, health services and education." In other words, poverty is powerlessness, a lack of representation and freedom. Poverty is an issue that the world faces everyday.