The World Bank says: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter.

Poverty is being
sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and
not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one
day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water.
Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.” To simply define
poverty, it says that someone is poor if he or she lacks adequate food, clothing, shelter,
and medical care. Poverty is like also receiving a tiny piece of pie. It is one of the major
problems in the world that needs to be addressed. This is why, it is important that we
trace and identify and do something about its fundamental causes.

The imminent cause of poverty is low earning ability, but going back one step, the
reason why people have low earning ability is because they lack skills, do not work
much, or do not own much capital and other resources. However, going back another
step, we can already question ourselves why do people lack skills, not work much, and
do not own capital and other resources? This would bring us to the real intermediate
causes: lack of education, family dysfunction, neighborhood effects, poor health, lack of
transportation, and/or just plain bad luck as factors contributing to poverty.

On the other hand, discrimination and prejudice are often used interchangeably. But
prejudice does not always lead to discrimination and discrimination can occur without
prejudice. Prejudice is referred to as a dislike, distaste or misperception based on innate
characteristics such as sex or race. Discrimination need not to imply racism, sexism, or
prejudice. Treating people differently on the basis of their membership in a class is
discrimination. It occurs when there is an impact on the individual so that the individual
has greater difficulty for example earning a lower wage or is otherwise hurt by action.
Because of this instance, discrimination then becomes as one of the causes of poverty
and social exclusion. Both are interrelated because poverty and social exclusion also
increases the risk of experiencing discrimination. Discrimination can occur anytime and
anywhere. There is race discrimination in the labor market, in costumer markets and
the Judicial System, and most especially, there is Sex Discrimination. As a result, the
slice of pie that should be given to that sector of society becomes smaller.

Despite the difficulties associated with detecting and measuring the extent of
discrimination, this does not often address. Discrimination, stereotypes, and prejudice
dominate the society and these negative behaviors and actions affect people of all
different ages, races, and ethnicities around the world. It influences the daily life of
their victims in areas such as employment, income, education, and medical care. A
requirement for a just society is that it takes steps to reduce the impact of this
discrimination on how the pie is sliced. Opportunities must be distributed equally to
each individual so that everyone is given a chance to make their lives better. There
needs to be a change in social norms because it was never our differences that divide
us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.