Do poor people 'have it easy'?

There are a lot of poor people on the earth and, in my opinion, they do not live easily at all. Poverty is one of the most important causes of society that needs to be addressed. According to the explanatory dictionary by J. Black poverty is the inability to afford a sufficient level of consumption. Although actual hunger is no longer there, this level is very vulnerable for changes in countries and over time. Economists disagree about whether to calculate poverty in absolute terms as a drop in consumption below a certain minimum level or determine it in relative terms, i.e. when poverty means the inability to have what middle-income people have.

If we proceed from the absolute level, technical progress is supposed to lift everyone above the poverty line. If we consider poverty as a relative indicator, the poor will always be among us. The poverty line is an indicative level of income, which is enough to avoid miserable consumption. “Poverty trap” (poverty trap) is a tax system and a social security system that gives the poor a little chance to get rid of poverty.

In my opinion, it cannot be denied that low-income people, at least most of them, try to get out of this “routine”, working from morning till night for pennies. After all, these citizens are exactly the same as all of us, but due to circumstances, they must work tirelessly, maybe have a side job, just for the sake of having what to eat at home, not to mention the disabled people to whom the state does not almost help. But before talking about poverty in general, it is necessary to understand what its causes are and for whose fault the people cannot afford to go to a bar or cafe elementary, or buy high-quality clothes. I think that the first and one of the most important causes of poverty is unemployment, the lack of jobs leads to poverty. The second, but no less important, problem is low wages, because even people with higher education do not always have salaries worthy of their profession, not to mention ordinary workers such as drivers, cleaners, and so on. The next reason for low income is the low level of education (discussed above) and insufficient level of professional training. Also, in a group of reasons, you can include a high price for essential goods and goods in general as well as inflated prices for utilities and real estate prices and many other things. The same reason can be hidden in the person himself, or he does not want to work, but be dependent upon somebody for support only, or this person have such harmful habits as alcohol and drugs. Sometimes people are responsible for the mistakes of their youth, not having the desire to learn, they simply “spit” for study, and they feel sorry about it in the near future. Based on mentioned above, it is impossible to give an unequivocal answer who or what is to blame for the large number of people in a low economic position. Beginning with the statistical data we have learnt that the poverty statistics in Russia shows that the number of beggars increased by 2 million people only in 2015. According to the statistics, in 2014there were 18 million people below the poverty line in Russia. In September 2015 more than 20.3 million people were registered. At the same time Rosstat makes a reservation that this data does not include the population of Sevastopol and the inhabitants of the Crimea peninsula. It is clear from the statistics that the number of poor people is growing at a terribly high rate, but there is no exact answer to this question. Talking about whether it’s easy for people with low incomes, you can say “No” for sure I mean people find it difficult to afford to buy a chocolate bar for children, or even bread for the family. But it’s my belief, society cannot exist without poor people. Although there was one case when in the Soviet Union, in comparison with our country, there was no poverty. Of course, there were families who did not have enough money, but this problem was solved in a short time. But at that time there was no rich. And the average standard of living was less than that of other developed countries. I believe that at the moment it is impossible to eradicate poverty completely, but there is a chance to reduce the level of unemployment and poverty. In support of the poor, I want to cite Omar Khayyam’s words as an example that life is more valuable than all wealth and honors. Indeed, the truth is that we live and this is the main wealth. Life is more expensive than money, expensive clothes and everything else, the main thing is not to forget and not to despair in difficult situations.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that there are no hopeless situations, so we have to work against poverty. As mentioned above, it cannot be avoided, but it is still possible to reduce the number of low-income families. I suppose, this work requires more cost-effective state assistance, not only to business entities, but also material assistance to ordinary civil servants. State intervention is necessary to resolve these problems. And in response to this question about whether it is easy to live poor people, to my mind, it is not easy. In fact, wages are not great, not to speak of people receiving a disability pension or old-age pension.

By

Sirik Anton Aleksandrovih, student Sakhalin railway Institute (Yuzhno - Sakhalinsk)