Poverty & Inequality
What is Poverty?
Poverty is a term that is widely used in the Philippines, our country is dubbed to be a third world country. Poverty means that a condition of a person who does not have financial resources to provide standard of living. Another term for it is that the income level is very low that people are not capable of providing their basic needs in life. In each nation the term poverty is different, for the Philippines, people who are not capable of providing for themselves and their basic needs are considered to be in the poverty side.
What are the key trends in global poverty and inequality?
There are a numerous key trends in global poverty and inequality, but let us stick to something that is familiar to us due to our subject course which is globalization and capitalism. So the term globalization from the root word global, it means that it reaches everywhere and everyone around the world. This is when resources, technology, information or culture reaches beyond its borders and reach other nations. Capitalism however, is an economic system where individuals or businesses own capital goods. It is one process by which the problems of economic production and resource distribution might be resolved.
Does capitalism eliminate or reinforce inequality?
Some inequality results from individual differences in talent or skill. But this cannot explain the huge gaps between rich and poor in many capitalist countries. Capitalism does reinforce inequality. It is famous in the Philippines inheriting the wealth of your family and with that wealth it is used to help widen the gap between the rich and the poor, that is a capitalist mindset
Has globalization increased, or decreased, global poverty?
According to Hodgson, G. (2020) “capitalism embodies and sustains an Enlightenment agenda of freedom and equality. Typically there is freedom to trade and equality under the law, meaning that most adults — rich or poor — are formally subject to the same legal rules.” In other words capitalism can generate into more inequality.
References:
Chen, J. (2020). Poverty. Retrieved from. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poverty.asp
Kopp, C. (2020) Globalization. Retrieved from. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/globalization.asp
