The Five Tenets of Poverty
Poverty is a cycle. Those in poverty are often there because their parents were, and their children will be impoverished because they were. Because poverty is not a single generation occurrence, it is not a problem that can be controlled by a single generation. The poor, in general hold many universal mind sets and are also in many common situations. There are five central themes of poverty: lack of information, the need to make too many life altering decisions, exclusion from necessary markets and services, a reliance on false beliefs and a regression to pessimistic expectations.
THE LACK OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
Those who are in poverty often lack the information needed to make proper choices. Though they …show more content…
These countries often do not have government strong enough to regulate these things as they are done in the first world, so the burden to choose falls to each citizen. Having to make a plethora of important life decisions day in and day out that one does not necessarily understand is near impossible. For example, it is hard for an uneducated person to grasp the importance of immunizing their children. Not all children that do not get immunized get sick, and being immunized does not protect a child from all illnesses. Therefore, it is difficult to see value in immunizing one 's children. Especially if it is a vaccination that requires many rounds of shots spread out over time. Every time a parent must choose the “correct” option of getting their child immunized when each time the perceived benefit decreases, people believe that having the first shot in a series will be strong enough to protect their child even though in reality the vaccination doesn’t really work unless the whole series has been completed. Because this is a decision that they must make multiple times, it may or may not take precedence over other decisions they are having to make leading to a decreased possibility that they will choose …show more content…
When it comes to government policy in the third world, there are “the ubiquitous three I’s: ignorance, ideology, and inertia” (Banjeree 271). Policy maker in the third world generally suffer from the same information asymmetries that they poor they serve do. They are often not well educated enough to understand how to make correct policy decisions, and often base them on fads or erroneous ideologies. Because these ideologies are turned into policy, they perpetuate poor traditions and
Poverty is a cycle. Those in poverty are often there because their parents were, and their children will be impoverished because they were. Because poverty is not a single generation occurrence, it is not a problem that can be controlled by a single generation. The poor, in general hold many universal mind sets and are also in many common situations. There are five central themes of poverty: lack of information, the need to make too many life altering decisions, exclusion from necessary markets and services, a reliance on false beliefs and a regression to pessimistic expectations.
THE LACK OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
Those who are in poverty often lack the information needed to make proper choices. Though they …show more content…
These countries often do not have government strong enough to regulate these things as they are done in the first world, so the burden to choose falls to each citizen. Having to make a plethora of important life decisions day in and day out that one does not necessarily understand is near impossible. For example, it is hard for an uneducated person to grasp the importance of immunizing their children. Not all children that do not get immunized get sick, and being immunized does not protect a child from all illnesses. Therefore, it is difficult to see value in immunizing one 's children. Especially if it is a vaccination that requires many rounds of shots spread out over time. Every time a parent must choose the “correct” option of getting their child immunized when each time the perceived benefit decreases, people believe that having the first shot in a series will be strong enough to protect their child even though in reality the vaccination doesn’t really work unless the whole series has been completed. Because this is a decision that they must make multiple times, it may or may not take precedence over other decisions they are having to make leading to a decreased possibility that they will choose …show more content…
When it comes to government policy in the third world, there are “the ubiquitous three I’s: ignorance, ideology, and inertia” (Banjeree 271). Policy maker in the third world generally suffer from the same information asymmetries that they poor they serve do. They are often not well educated enough to understand how to make correct policy decisions, and often base them on fads or erroneous ideologies. Because these ideologies are turned into policy, they perpetuate poor traditions and