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Poverty and Discrimination

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Submitted By odada
Words 1497
Pages 6
Introduction
Poverty and discrimination are two major social issues that have continued to have a big impact on the lives of many people in the United States of America. Poverty and discrimination are closely related and intertwined since one always leads to the other and vice versa. Poverty is a state of having little or no resources such as money, goods, or means of support necessary to sustain life. Those who are stricken by poverty do not live a comfortable live, but merely survive. Poverty occurs in almost in all parts of the world. There are two types of poverty namely absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is due to lack of basic human needs such as food, shelter and clothing. It is a life threatening condition. Absolute poverty is rampant in developing nations in Africa such as Zimbabwe. Relative poverty is whereby a comparison based on resources is done to determine the level of poverty. Discrimination refer to the differential treatment of people based on various factors such as their economic status, level of education, race, gender, ethnic group any other group that people may be associated with. Although America has undergone tremendous transformation since the era of Martin Luther King, discrimination is still very rampant in United States. Sociological theories of poverty in America
Poverty is a complicated social phenomenon, and trying to discover the cause of poverty is equally complicated (Mason, 2006). In America the sociological theories and reasoning attributes poverty to personal failure of an individual, socio-structural failure and economical failure. There is stereotypical explanation as to why poverty persists in stable economy like United States of America. Stereotypes believe that the poor cause their own poverty since America is a land full of hope and opportunities, and one can only be poor due to their action and

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