Poverty refers to the lack of a certain amount or scarcity of money or material possession that can make a person not to sustain their well-being. Hunger arises when a person has no enough money to cater for his or her basic needs. Therefore, we can say that hunger is a result of poverty. Several issues like poor soil, lack of water, the climatic changes and lack of money to buy food causes hunger. In addition, political instability, war, and conflicts also cause a shortage in food security that may cause hunger. Poverty arises due to several reasons. Causes of poverty include overpopulation, being in a culture full of poverty, lack of education and outbreak of the epidemic diseases like malaria and AIDS where people spent a lot of money taking care of the sick. In addition, increase in the divorce rate may also lead to feminization of poverty. Several ethical issues arise from poverty and hunger.
The management of hunger has to look into some of the issues of food supply and access to the materials to support individuals in their lives. Poverty and Hunger is a serious social issue that individuals should work hard to overcome. One can take several measures to reduce the moral problem. The paper explains the causes of poverty and hunger, ways of avoiding poverty and hunger and the ethical issues that arise due to poverty and hunger. The paper also displays the importance of finding the solutions to poverty and hunger.
Most people in our societies believe that poverty causes hunger. Not every poor person is hungry, but most of the hungry people are poor because the poor people cannot afford enough amount of money to buy the food that can satisfy their needs. Some of the factors that cause poverty are poor management of family products. For example, people may decide to sell some of the produces or even sell a portion of the farm. The families living in poverty cannot afford enough materials and equipment required to grow enough food on their own. There are several indicators of poverty. The indicators of poverty include one; children from low-income families underperform in school due to several factors like hunger, illness and sometimes headache (Ramphoma 66). The second indicator is when there is an increase in the number of drop out children due to factors like school fees.
Poverty and hunger have several effects on the life of individuals in low-income families. To begin with, poverty leads to an increase in death of children in the low-income families (Ramphoma 66). Children in low-income families die at their early age because of some of the illnesses like the chronic diseases. Secondly, due to lack of food, suffering from the diseases like a headache makes the children from the low-income families to underperform in the educational sector (Ramphom 67). The underperformance demotivates the children from low-income families and makes the children drop out of school. Thirdly, political instability and civil was caused poverty and hunger (Hong, Farinda, Kan, Lim and Ting 4). When there is war in the country, most people lose their lives while other people are injured. I order to treat the wounded people; families have to use a lot of money. During the wars, people destroy other people products thus reducing the amount of food harvested.
Poverty forces children into child labor. Poverty makes and exposes the children from the needy families to the vulnerabilities of mistreatment. Also, the families living in poverty cannot afford to provide the balanced diet. The lack of the steady diet in children makes the children suffer from illnesses like marasmus and kwashiorkor.Lastly, poverty leads to poor health and maintenance. For example, girls from low-income families cannot access the materials like sanitary towels to help them maintain cleanliness and healthy living.
Poverty and hunger have several effects on individuals and society. To begin with, poverty leads to increase of crime rate. When people have no enough money to cater for their basic needs, the individuals will end up engaging in ways that they can get money. Secondly, hunger leads to an outbreak of chronic diseases that may require a lot of money to treat. In addition, poverty leads to increase in the number of school dropouts so that the children can look for a job. The drop out of individuals leads to increase in child labor. Lastly, poverty and hunger may lower the self-esteem of a child. When the parents from the rich families come to visit their children in school, the parents come with a bulk of food staffs as compared to parents from low-income families. The difference lowers the self-esteem of the low-income family students making them underperform in class.
Individuals can reduce poverty and hunger through several ways. To begin with, there should be an education development in the country (Mohajan 77). Provision of education equips individual with new skills of doing things that will lead to economic growth of the country. Secondly, cubing the food security in the country (Mohajan 74). To reduce the climatic change like drought people should avoid cutting down the trees. During the dry seasons, individuals should practice irrigation to increase the domestic production of agricultural products. By observing this, there will be accessibility and a stable supply of food in the country (Mohajan 74). The government should also provide, finance to low-income families to help the families fund the education and the health status of the children.
By the social problem, the author of the article “Rural Poverty in the United States” emphasizes on some of the key arguments in poverty and hunger.The author indicates that poverty is just a social problem that many people in the rural areas recognize and experience. The social forces such as gender, state of the economy, distribution of power beyond any economy and the racial discrimination cause poverty to increase. There is a difference in the poverty rate in different racial groups. Most of the racial minorities are poor as compared to the rural whites.The families are living in poverty struggle to meet the basic needs for adequate food. Most of the families experience the food insecurities where the individuals cannot obtain adequate nutritious food. The author also argues that poverty marks one of the greatest obstacles for the youths to acquire education.
One can use several ethical theories to solve poverty and hunger problem. One ethical theory is utilitarianism, which states that an action that maximizes utility is the best. Utilitarianism has two main components. The two components of utilitarianism are consequentialism and happiness. The consequences of action define whether the action is right or wrong. In consequentialism, the action that delivers the best results is the best action, and if the action delivers worst results, then the action is wrong. The actions that promote happiness are the right actions. Another ethical theory is the desire satisfaction theory. The desire satisfaction theory states that a good that satisfies a human want is the best good for an individual. The amount of goods needed for one’s want determines the desire for one’s satisfaction. For a person to have a better life, he or she has to get more of the basic wants. A person can use the desire satisfaction theory as a solution for poverty and hunger. Everybody’s desires are important, and therefore individuals should care about the welfare of the needy to satisfy the desires of the needy. In addition, an individual can use utilitarianism theory as a solution to poverty and hunger. To create happiness for the needy, the well-being individuals should provide the basic needs of the poor. Financing the poor to will create a better environment for studying, and the needy will end up achieving their desired goals.
Finding a solution for poverty and hunger is important. The importance of finding a solution to the poverty and hunger problems is that: first, people will get the knowledge on the ways of increasing the products to avoid hunger. Secondly, the people will identify the importance of creating peace and unity and avoid the political difference to create an environment that encourages economic growth. Thirdly, finding the solution to hunger and poverty reduces the dependency ratio. If people identify the proper methods to cultivate and produce adequate food for use, the individuals will not depend on other people for help. Besides, the finding the solution helps the individuals to prepare themselves for change in climate and know the importance of storing the products for future. In addition, the illness arising from lack of adequate food and lack of balanced diet. Reducing the sickness will create a better environment for the children to learn and achieve their goals in the educational sector. Lastly, the importance of finding the solution to hunger and poverty is that the parents will identify how they can finance the children in school regarding school fees and the required material for learning.
In conclusion, poverty and hunger is a social problem that may cause several challenges to individuals and families. Several causes of poverty and hunger are poor management of the resources, climatic changes, political instability and civil wars. Poverty and hunger may result in several effects on the life of an individual. First, children from low-income families drop out of school due to lack of adequate materials for learning. Secondly, several illnesses occur because of lack of the food required for child grown. The low-income families cannot provide a balanced diet for children thus children can suffer from an illness like kwashiorkor. Besides, poverty and hunger results in criminal cases where individuals may decide to steal to get food. Individuals can reduce the poverty rate in different ways. The ways through which individuals can reduce the poverty rate is through better management of family product, the provision of employment opportunities individuals, educating people on the best ways of cultivating. Poverty and hunger is a social issue, and people should find the ways of adhering to the crisis.
Works Cited.
Hong, Alex.,Farinda, Abdul, Kan, Fock., Lim, Ai " Ting, Teo. Poverty: Its Causes and Solution, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 8, 2013. Pp.1-9
Mohajan, Kumar. Poverty and Economic Development of Kenya, International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, Vol. 18, No.1. 2013. Pp. 72-82.
Ramphoma, Khabiso. Understanding Poverty: Causes Effects and Characteristics, Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 12. No. 2. 2014. Pp.59-72.
