State whether you agree or disagree with your colleague’s position on whether poverty is the result of cultural or individual characteristics
Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.
Respond by Day 5 to at least two colleagues in one of the following ways:
Critique your colleague’s explanation of how poverty impacts individuals in young and middle adulthood.
State whether you agree or disagree with your colleague’s position on whether poverty is the result of cultural or individual characteristics. Provide support for your position.
Reply to a colleague who selected a theory of poverty that differs from the one you selected by critiquing his or her evaluation of the theory.
RE: Discussion – Week 4
I understand poverty as the lack of choices. The poorer one is, the less choices one has, that includes food and shelter. It can be said that poverty is a state of mind; that we need to be strong and willing to do the work. While I believe this statement to be true, I also believe there are circumstances that can create hopelessness, perpetuating a poverty cycle. “Poverty …often leads to despair, low self- esteem, and stunting of physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth” (Zastrow, et al., 2019).
As poverty creates lack of choices, young adults can suffer from hunger, or poor nutrition which creates another set of misfortune in the future like bad health, and predisposition to certain diseases like diabetes and heart failure. Another implication of poverty, and a reason a lot of poor people stay poor, is the lack of education opportunities. There are a lot of instances that poor people might have access to a grant that pays for college, but they don’t have money for food during the school day, books, or student housing. These students must get a job and college becomes a second priority, creating a greater chance for dropping out. Others try to live with their parents to save money on food and housing but can’t afford to focus on their college work in the same way an on-campus-student surrounded by other students would, reducing the possibilities for completing a degree and ultimately perpetuating poverty. In this society, education is essential to get out of the poverty cycle, but education itself is very expensive. It would be very hard for a person with a family to be able to go to college. If by the time someone decides to have a family, they don’t have an education, a profession, or a vocation, they could be perpetuating the poverty cycle. The children of these individuals would feel the effects of poverty and might engage in practices that further perpetuate poverty. Another effect of having a family while being uneducated is that kids are an expense. Therefore, a family that is poor and uneducated would lack more choices as they struggle to find a way to provide for their child/children.
Since poverty can limit choices of some, it can be seen as a systematic failure. If we look at which population is statistically poor, we can find links to the history of this country. For example, the history of marginalization of African Americans and Natives Americans can be linked to the poverty status that most of these communities find themselves in today. There is a small percentage of these people that make it out of poverty, and as a capitalist society these few examples, often lead us to assume that it was all personal effort. However, when we look closer at these few examples, we can see that there were a lot of factors that influenced the outcome.
I feel poverty can be the result of individual choices, but it is usually the individuals with the least number of choices that end up poor. The mental aspect and identity with poverty can be seen as an individual trait, but when you grow up poor it is hard to see yourself as something else. “Poverty hurts deeply when it leads to viewing oneself as inferior or second-class” (Zastrow et al.). Being aware of the choices, help and programs available, and how to qualify and apply to these programs is a step in the right direction.
As a social worker I need to empower my clients to be able to see an exit out of poverty. For this to happen, there must be a mental shift into a more positive outcome, as well as being able to find solutions to basic needs. Some theories that try to define poverty could be applied to the practice of social work more than others. I think the theory that I would be able to use more with my clients, as well as being able to measure the success in application is the Interactionist Theory. Lacking choices, being poor, or the mental state of feeling poor can mean different things to different clients. The theory establishes that poverty is subjective to what we compare it to. With the Interactionist Model I can help the client get to their next level, because trying to end poverty altogether might be a lot to take on for a social worker and the client. A client that has all basic needs covered but feels poor because he/she can’t take a vacation trip has to be addressed in a different way than a poor person that goes to bed hungry every night. With the Interactionist Model, I can get both clients out of their own poverty without having to have both clients reach the same standard. The disadvantage of practicing this theory is that it does not offer a clear guide on whether poverty has been resolved, because it is all subjective.
Reference
Zastrow, C. H., Kirst-Ashman, K. K. & Hessenauer, S. L. (2019). Understanding human behavior and the social environment(11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Answer preview to state whether you agree or disagree with your colleague’s position on whether poverty is the result of cultural or individual characteristics
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