Cycle of poverty
The cycle of poverty describes a persistent state where families remain trapped in poverty across multiple generations, making it difficult for them to escape without external support. Families living in poverty often struggle to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare, which significantly hinders their ability to invest in education and opportunities for their children. Children born into this cycle face numerous challenges, including attending under-resourced schools, living in unsafe neighborhoods, and experiencing instability due to family transitions or economic hardship.
These disadvantages can lead to a pattern where children grow up unprepared for higher education and are often limited to low-paying jobs, perpetuating their family's poverty. Without intervention, the cycle continues, as children who grow up in such environments may become parents themselves under similar economic conditions. Experts largely agree that breaking this cycle requires significant external intervention, primarily through access to quality education and stable employment opportunities. Additionally, addressing systemic issues such as discrimination and lack of affordable housing is crucial for creating lasting change and enabling families to improve their circumstances.
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Cycle of poverty
The cycle of poverty refers to a family living in poverty for multiple generations, with some experts specifying three or more generations. Those living in poverty may struggle to finance basic daily needs such as food, water, and shelter. Some of those living in poverty have access to government assistance to pay for their basic needs; however, they have little money for anything else, including fostering their children's education.
Breaking the cycle of poverty is extremely difficult because of the disadvantages faced by those living in poverty, which include having to live in crime-ridden neighborhoods, facing discrimination, and having little or no access to health care. Children growing up in poverty are especially challenged; they are more likely to experience family transitions and frequent relocations. Because of their low income, they do not have access to the educational toys and materials that other children have. Breaking the cycle of poverty requires external intervention that is costly and difficult to implement. Most experts have agreed that offering children and teenagers living in poverty a quality education leading to steady employment is paramount in implementing lasting change.
Background
Poverty is commonly defined as not having enough money to pay for necessities and maintain a basic standard of living. Poverty is subdivided into several types, with absolute poverty being the most extreme. People living in absolute poverty, also called extreme or abject poverty, struggle to survive. They lack material essentials such as food, clean drinking water, shelter, and sanitation facilities. They lack social essentials such as access to education, health care, and information. Across countries, the level of poverty is typically measured by the international poverty line set by the World Bank, which has been consistently reassessed and updated according to global price levels.
Relative poverty refers to an income that is too low to meet society's average standard of living. Those living in relative poverty may have access to government support for food, water, and health care and may live in free housing. However, they cannot afford luxuries such as dinners in restaurants or presents for their children. They usually cannot afford to send their children to college.
Transitional, or situational, poverty is usually temporary. Individuals living in this type of poverty may have been thrust into the situation by a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, or an illness.
Generational poverty occurs when families have been living in poverty for at least three generations, meaning at least two generations have been born into poverty. Those living in generational poverty become trapped because they do not have access to resources that might improve their situation. This entrapment is referred to as the cycle of poverty.
Within a country, societal issues that can contribute to cyclical poverty have often included group marginalization and discrimination on the basis of such factors as race, religion, and physical ability. Families within such marginalized groups tend to face a disparate amount of difficulty overcoming poverty due to systemic challenges in areas such as education, housing, and employment.
Overview
The cycle of poverty refers to a state in which it is impossible for a family to escape poverty without outside intervention. Poverty passes from generation to generation, with the older generation being unable to help the younger generations improve their lives. In several instances, the cycle of poverty often begins when a head of the household becomes unemployed or disabled. It then leads to children having to attend inadequate schools, working in low-paying jobs, and having to live in subsidized housing. The cycle repeats itself when these children have their own children.
A child born into poverty is disadvantaged from birth. In some cases, the child may be born with health problems and/or grow up malnourished and sick, leading to frequent absences from school. The schools children experiencing poverty must attend are usually in poverty-stricken neighborhoods and cannot attract the best teachers. The teacher-student ratio is typically abnormally high. Children who manage to graduate from these schools are not as prepared for college as those who attended better schools, and they do not have equal access to higher education.
The housing and neighborhoods in which children must live are also problematic. Children may be exposed to hazards such as lead paint, asbestos, and overcrowding. Subsidized housing is often located in places with an abundance of crime and physical blight. Residents of the neighborhood are not college educated; they are either supported by the government or work in low-paying service jobs. Children are often exposed to violence in these neighborhoods. They may become victims of this violence or turn to a life of crime, joining gangs and ending up incarcerated or killed.
Teenagers from impoverished families may have to care for their parents, who often have a shorter-than-average life span because of years of poor eating, hard work, and inadequate health care. Their parents may also have substance abuse problems.
Such teens may quit high school to help support the family by working in a low-wage service job, such as in a fast-food restaurant. The longer these teens stay out of school, the less likely it is that they will return and improve their chances for better employment. They will have little or no opportunity for advancement and not enough money to set aside for retirement. A job loss, therefore, means a loss of everything. If these teens have children, they will also grow up impoverished—and the cycle of poverty continues.
Breaking the cycle of poverty requires external intervention that is both difficult and costly to implement. Most experts have agreed that education is key—and giving children access to a quality education requires a change in neighborhood. Low-income families must be offered affordable housing in good neighborhoods, where crime is lower and schools are better. Children from impoverished families need better guidance in school to steer them toward post-secondary education, and this education must be affordable for them. They need an education that will lead to decent-paying, stable employment.
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