Why is there poverty in rich countries Research Paper

Why is there poverty in rich countries - Research Paper Example Some countries are doing a lot to reduce the cases of poverty though they have not fully succeeded. In this case, this study tries to explain the existences of poverty in rich countries. It, also, describes the challenges of poverty globally. Adeola (2005) explains that poverty is a challenging situation where a family or an individual cannot attain the living standards of his or her society. Definition of poverty, however, varies some explains that poverty is the lack of funds though poverty is a greatest problem in a society. For example, we think that poverty is meant by having little or no money to spend or paying bills. However, poverty is more than what many of us perceive because it affects person’s life, causing a wide range of problems such as poor health and illiteracy. Poverty brings in social problems to the community such as crime, drug abuse, and suicide. Studies by Grant and Vidler (256) explain poverty in two different ways, absolute poverty and relative poverty. At this stage, a person is described to be in absolute poverty when his or her income is not enough to acquire basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing. On the other hand, relative poverty is when an individual is poor as compared to other people. Rich countries do have people without basic needs such as housing. For example, according to Grant and Vidler (256), there were almost 1600 people sleeping outside as per the statistics in the year 2000 in England. The authors point that such cases are more in the developing countries. Relative poverty, as described above, is a situation where a person is poor as compared to other people. For example, some people can afford, accommodation, television, but may lack video player and besides, they may only afford to travel once in a week. However, such individuals might be considered rich if they were citizens of developing countries. This shows the difference