Poverty as a cause and consequence of underdevelopment

  

Date Posted: 2/10/2012 5:17:08 AM

Posted By: agus  Membership Level: Bronze  Total Points: 5

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Poverty is both a cause and consequence of underdevelopment

The above statement can and should be regarded to be true especially when African states are put on the table for scrutiny purposes. The above is essentially justifiable and is attributed to the vicious cycle of poverty where one is spoor because he is poor. ‘The above is founded on three great pillars of argument
1. Demand side
2. Supply side
3. In adequate human capital

Demand side- this follows that; low income leads to low demand for goods and services which in turn leads to low investments. Once the stage of low investments is reached, capital formation is negatively affected and hence low productivity. This then makes it become a cycle whose starting point cannot be directly pointed at.

Supply side-The same can be viewed with respect to supply of goods and services. Here low income is translated to low supply of vital goods. The implication then becomes a decreased saving in the economy. This in the long run boils back to slow rate of needed production of essentials for the economy. The end result is the same cycle.

The third aspect occurs where human capital and resources is retarded. Due to the very arguments of poverty, people cannot access adequate schooling and education. This category is thus not very productive since their resourcefulness is already curtailed. Production of the same people is not adequate. In essence production of this very group is not guaranteed. In the long run the capacity of the same is not proper.

An example is that of a person who is poor, becomes generally weak in their physic, this in return means less productivity. In the same respect the person cannot get education which is a critical component for the success of any individual or economy. On the same breadth the person, due to poverty cannot

purchase adequately because their purchasing power is reduced this in return reduces the supply side.

The cycle is therefore described as a constellation of factors that affect and eventually react with each other and bring about a state of compulsive poverty to the population in question.
Case proposition of Nairobi Kenya: Kenya just like Latin America, Asia and other African countries has poverty in both urban and rural setting. In Kenya it is estimated that 2/3 of the people living in urban setting are poor and a majority live below a dollar per day. This has negative effects on the urban settlements.

Most of the people living in Nairobi are not indigenous members; most have come from rural setting in search for greener pastures. They suffer the same fate of the three fundamentals discussed above
The ladies are forced into prostitution. They earn very minimal and end up suffering both physically and psychologically. To add salt to injury, they cannot escape diseases like HIV/AIDS and other venereal diseases. The resultant effect is orphans, low productivity and the cycle continues.

Sanitation of the places that a majority of the people live in is poor since there is inadequate water that is critical for human existence. Living condition is wanting and malnutrition is the order of the day.

Poverty contributes to domestic violence because of the little resources that is at the end of the day brought home but there is great deal of wants and needs to meet. This in turn leads to anomic and egoistic suicide almost on daily basis on the part of the affected population.
It is therefore considered that it is a disease that is killing us majorly because of the oscillation nature hence poverty is both a cause and a consequence.

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