6 Ways to Break the Vicious Cycle of Poverty

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Do you know there are about 711 million people in the world living in extreme poverty per world poverty clock? That is living on less than USD 1.9 a day. Does it sound astonishing? So how do people live on such meagre earnings? Are they even able to meet their basic needs: live food, clothing and shelter, leave alone sending children for education? Of all the countries in the world, the top three countries with absolute highest number of people living in extreme poverty being India (98 million), Nigeria (87 million) and Republic of Congo (66 million) as per world poverty clock on October 31, 2021. So would it be even possible for so many people to even break out of this cycle of poverty? Hence, in this post, let’s do a thorough analysis of 6 ways to break the vicious cycle of poverty.

World poverty clock- In India 98 million people living in extreme poverty
Source: World Poverty Clock

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”

– Nelson Mandela

Where is poverty in the journey towards finding fulfillment in life? Can we also really find fulfillment in life if we live in poverty and penury?

Most likely, it is going to be very difficult to live a fulfilled life if we do not meet our basic needs. This is because Maslow’s hierarchy of has basic needs in the pyramid’s foundation. Hence, without satisfying our basic needs, it is going to be difficult to even start this journey of finding fulfillment in life. Would you agree?

Have You Seen Poverty?

How close have you been to poverty? Have you seen people living in hunger? With no basic amenities, living on the streets without almost anything? Just trying to get two meals a day or even one? Not enough food, clothing or shelter and most likely with no access to adequate healthcare when needed most.

Homeless people sleeping on the street in India
Image by Kasun Chamara from Pixabay

Or people on the streets trying to do menial jobs to earn enough food for the day? So how does it feel like sitting or walking overall all day to sell some merchandise facing the vagaries of mother nature without almost any shelter to earn USD 1.9 a day? Just probably to feed oneself and some dependents? Then what life they could afford to give to their children?

Poor women selling peanuts on the street
Image by Aamir Mohd Khan from Pixabay

Or ragpicker children on the streets scouring through trash to support their families without likely any access to primary education or healthcare? Life can be brutal to many children in this world. What future do they have? Then would they be able to grow up with any education at all or they may probably give this same life to their children and the next generations?

Poor children on the street
Image by billy cedeno from Pixabay

These above sight are not uncommon in countries like India, be in urban or rural India. So what are the ways to break the vicious cycle of poverty?

6 Ways to Break the Vicious Cycle of Poverty

So how many times we crib over what we don’t have, keeping on yearning for more and more stuffs in our lives? Then how do we come to terms with ourselves in this situation of ours having so much versus those who have nothing living in penury? Just because we were born with these basic amenities given to us and 711 million people in this world born without it? Then do we just consider ourselves lucky and walk away with no responsibility towards the have nots?

So then, how do we break the vicious cycle of poverty? How is it even possible to even get out of it or is it a perennial do loop? Let’s deep dive into the 6 ways to break the vicious cycle of poverty.

Implement Effective Government Policies

Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty depends mostly on the government’s policies and its will to uplift its citizens from extreme poverty. Because every citizen has a right to a better quality of life.

Eradicate Poverty

Probably the starting point of poverty eradication starts with governmental policies. How committed are governments to eradicate poverty? Or the governments are more interested in using poverty to gain electoral gains? Or play politics with poverty to its own advantage? Because eradicating poverty usually requires powerful government will and determination. Hence, if the governments have a will to eradicate poverty, it will probably plan policies having short term and long-term plans to address poverty.

Does the governments have long-term plans to step by step eliminate poverty? In most cases, poverty elimination starts with a long-term plan. So does your government has one? Do you see it’s working?

Generate Employment

Why do countries struggle to generate employment? There are many reasons but one of the key is the ability to a create a conducive business environment. So that industries can invest and create jobs. Often, in many countries, the ease of doing business is not good. There are examples of red tape, corruption, economic instability because of ad hoc government policies and political instability, to name a few. Hence, both local and foreign investors shy away from investing.

To a great extent, the ability of any country to generate employment depends on government policies both short term and long term. How is your country able to generate employment?

Eliminate Corruption

So, what are your thoughts on corruption and poverty? It might be heartbreaking to see how corruption in countries like India ensures people living in poverty to continue the cycle of poverty for generations. Because many times it might be impossible to break the vicious cycle of poverty because of the infrastructure of corruption at multiple levels of the governance. Then government support to lift them from poverty might not reach them.

World corruption index by Transparency International
Source: Transparency International

Reduce Economic Inequality

High rise skyscrapers and slums
Image by A MH from Pixabay

Do you live in a country where you can see multi-storeyed buildings and slums side by side? How can the ultrarich and the extremely poor people living on less than USD 1.9 per day coexist together? Did you know India has 140 billionaires which puts India in the third spot right after the US and China? What could be flawed in this economic model? Is it crony capitalism?

Then how could the government reduce this stark economic disparity? Or the first question is, do we really need to reduce this disparity, or it is just okay to have very cheap labor which serves the purposes of the rich?

Does it also mean that governments need to have higher taxes like in Scandinavian countries to ensure public support for the need in terms of food security, education and healthcare? Something to think about, about alone taxes will not help because in countries like India where taxes are pretty high and the poor still don’t get the government support. Interestingly, in India, only less than 2% of its population pays income taxes. To be more accurate, out of 1.38 billion population, according to an article by Raktim Sharma in Yahoo Finance published on February 9, 2021, only 14.6 million Indians pay income taxes. Then what impact it has on the Indian economy?

Provide Financial Support

Are the poor at fault for being poor? If they are poor and don’t have access to basic government support, how can we expect them to come out of this vicious cycle of poverty? Then don’t we have any responsibility toward our poor citizens? What can we do and what should we do to help our countrymen get what they deserve? To live like human beings? Or should we be mute spectators not trying to question the status quo?

Social Security

One short-term measure is to provide social security to the poor in terms of food, clothing and shelter. Which also includes making sure every person living in extreme poverty has access to public distribution systems. That means the government doesn’t exclude anyone from receiving government support either in terms of subsidized ration or direct benefits.

But again get social security should to construed as always being entitled to government support. For example, in the US, because of stimulus checks and Covid-19 unemployment support industries cannot find labor to work. Is it the right way to benefit from public money and government social security? There are countries where poor people genuinely need government social security and there are countries where probably people are abusing government support?

Education Support

When someone is struggling to get food two times a day, it is difficult for parents to spend any money to educate their children. Which might lead to having children working as child labor instead of going to school.

So it is imperative for governments to provide good free primary and secondary education with feel meals at schools for children. That might be an incentive for children to attend school from poor families. Then with Covid-19 pandemic raging through last eighteen months, what has been the impact on poor children since all schools remained shut down in countries like India?

Then if you get the basic education support like in the US, are you or your children making the best of the government support you are getting? In most European countries, even higher education is state sponsored, so are you or your children take advantage of this support? Hence, it is not only about governments providing education support but also about how we are leveraging them to get educated, then developing new skills to either get employed or get well paid.

Healthcare Support

Then comes free and quality basic healthcare support for the poor. But is the case in your country? Is there good free healthcare for poor in most countries? Because the people who are poor are also the citizens of the country they live in. So would only the rich and people who can afford to have access to good healthcare?

For example, in India, even if there is free healthcare in public hospitals, there are just too many people seeking to get healthcare versus what the infrastructure exists for. And then also the quality of healthcare in especially rural areas is abysmal.

Emigrate to Other Countries

Last, whether we accept poverty as our fate is also up to us. Trying to break the vicious cycle of poverty also entails takings some risks to come out of it. We may also have our choices. But it is up to us whether to exercise it. This may need the courage to travel out and try to find any job in any other country. Many times people accept it as their fate to live in penury, but don’t gather the courage to venture out to find a better quality of life in another country. This is not fraught with risks and initial pain, but there are so many countries in the world whose population is ageing and needs immigrants to enter the labor market for their economies running.

Would you agree that there are opportunities outside your countries to live a better life? Do you yearn for a better quality of life? Then would you have gathered the courage to explore what life offers you outside the countries you live in? If so, how would you go about and make the move? Every immigrant struggles in another country, but many times even coming out of their comfort zones in their countries. But this struggle is primarily for their next generations, would you agree?

Conclusion on Ways to Break the Vicious Cycle of Poverty

To conclude, we get only one life. If we are living in poverty, we need to strive to break the vicious cycle of poverty. This article about the 6 ways to break the vicious cycle of poverty is just some initial thoughts so that you can find your own ways. Of course, the poor needs government support, but what can they do by themselves to break this vicious cycle? Is there anything they can do or is there anything we can do to help them? I it also depends on what we want to do to help? Which can be through helping them get their entitlement or supporting them to emigrate to another country and providing opportunities for employment. Something to think about. Do we have a responsibility towards helping the poor break the vicious cycle of poverty?

What if you are poor or see a lot of poverty around you? Then how can you break this vicious cycle of poverty? What can you do to get out of it or help others get out of it? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

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