The Effects of Poverty on an Individual

Overpopulation of the world is prone to create challenges in job opportunities. Since

job opportunities are scarce, the number of people who lack jobs has increased

relatively. In the past, a person’s earnings were enough to provide for the whole family’s

expenses. However, a person’s income only makes ends meet nowadays because the

cost of living is higher. So people who are from large families have more tendencies to

face financial difficulties. Financially disadvantaged people are facing these difficulties:

losing access to quality education, having difficulties in reaching out to health care

treatment and experiencing negative effects on their social status.

Losing access to quality education is one of the main factors caused by poverty. It

hugely affects children's education. A New Zealand Ministry of Education report says,

“Parental income has a direct impact on whether a family can afford fees, transport

costs, and other significant costs that may be associated with education services” (para.

3). Children who come from uneducated and low-income family backgrounds are less

likely to get a proper education. Instead of going to school and learning lessons, they

have to work for their living. As child workers, they may possibly face labor exploitation,

that is, they work for long hours but they are paid less. In addition, their job is tiring and

underpaid as they are not educated. All the above situations are consequences of

poverty and lack of education.

Another prominent factor is that getting health care treatment is out of reach for

those who are poor. This is because the cost of medical treatments and drugs are

expensive. This kind of problem is most common in remote areas. Even though there
are free health care treatments provided by non-profit organizations, people in remote

areas cannot reach out to them because of transportation costs. So, in many cases,

people die of minor diseases that they should not die. For example, people in villages

are facing health problems such as diarrhea and measles related to personal hygiene.

Barnett and Bagshaw state: “Poor social conditions are not accidental, but result from

neoliberal policies that affect not only mortality but also morbidities such as obesity,

mental health and health risk behaviors” (p. 78). These diseases are not serious, but if

people do not get the proper treatment, it is fatal. Thus, these noticeable problems are

linked to poverty and lack of medical treatment.

Poverty also has a high impact on social status. It seems to occur in workplaces and

educational sectors such as schools, colleges and universities. For example, in

workplaces, people who are well-off are more likely to outweigh the poor and probably

get more opportunities because they can make larger connections with people who are

in high-ranking positions. Similarly, students who have poor financial backgrounds are

probably hesitant to expand social connections as they have low self-esteem. According

to Galbraith (1977), “People are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate

for survival, falls radically behind that of the community. Then they cannot have what the

larger community regards as the minimum necessary for decency; and they cannot

wholly escape, therefore, the judgment of the larger community that they are indecent.

They are degraded for, in the literal sense, they live outside the grades or categories

which the community regards as acceptable” (p. 198). Therefore, it is undeniable that

poverty creates negative effects on social status.

 In conclusion, the above evidence shows that when people are impoverished, they

lose their basic quality of life: quality education, good health care treatment and good

social status. For these reasons, they need to find out ways to get out of poverty. If they

are aware of the importance of education and become educated, they will have more

chances to get well-paid jobs. If they earn more money, they will afford to get health

care treatments. In this way, they can execute for their well-being and create a better

social life.

References

Barnett, P., & Bagshaw, P. (2020). Neoliberalism: What it is, how it affects health and

what to do about it. New Zealand Medical Journal, 133(1512), 76-84.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340436503_Neoliberalism_What_it_is_

how_it_affects_health_and_what_to_do_about_it

Galbraith, J. K. (1977). The affluent society. Andre Deutsch Ltd.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HLuqZf_99jq3EklsbJSUzEyeowvY7Rxy/view?usp
=sharing

Haigh, D. (2021). Impacts of poverty, Whanake: The Pacific Journal of Community

Development, 7(1), 77-95. Haigh, D. (2021).pdf (researchbank.ac.nz)

Ministry of Education. (n.d). Children living in low income household.

https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/indicators/

main/family-and-community-engagement/children_living_in_

low_income_households

(Peer editing by Hnin Yi Mon Aung and Nan Thiri San)