Poverty Cycle

Poverty Cycle:

The poverty cycle is a system in which a person or group is forced to live in poverty without chances to break free because the self-reinforcing mechanisms prevent it.  

What does this mean?  Imagine a family living in poverty for a generation. Despite low income, basic living expenses such as food, housing, etc. must be paid for. Since more money needs to be spent, they cannot save as much as they need.  No matter how much harder or how much more work hours are being put in, just not enough money is being made.  With poor living conditions and lack of higher level education, seeking a better job is extremely difficult.  These conditions would carry on and a pply to each new generation in this particular family.  And so, the cycle continues. This is the poverty cycle. 

What is poverty?

Let’s start off simple. What is poverty exactly? The word “poverty” is defined as being extremely poor. But actually, there’s more to it than that. There are 4 levels of poverty; occasionally poor, cyclical poor, usually poor, and always poor.

-Occasionally poor:

People who spend most of their time above the poverty line, but every once in a while will dip below it.

-Cyclical Poor:

Similar to occasionally poor, but will dip below the poverty line more consistently. 

-Usually poor:

The opposite of occasionally poor. People will spend most of their time below the poverty line, but will manage to cross it for short periods of time.

-Always poor:

This type of poverty usually spans back generations. These people will spend 95% of their time below the poverty line. 

What drives poverty?

In math terms, poverty = inequality x risk. 

Inequality can mean a number of things, from caste, ethnicity, age to ability, welfare, and health. One of the biggest forms of inequality though, is towards women. Many young girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriages, preventing them from finishing their basic education. 

Risk is a combination of different groups’ levels of vulnerability and the dangers they face. Risks can take the form of natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, conflict, etc. The more at risk a group is, the harder it is to break the cycle. 

How to break the cycle?

It may seem nearly impossible to break out of the poverty cycle, but rest assured, it can be done. The first thing to remember is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to breaking the cycle. As a society, we need to take into consideration different levels of poverty, the different skills varying groups possess, and the barriers of differing groups. But, the number one way to break the poverty cycle is education. Education is the gateway to infinite possibilities and opportunities, the trickiest part is recognizing and taking advantage of them.