Social Issues: The Uses of Global Poverty

Subject: Sociology
Pages: 2
Words: 597
Reading time:
2 min
Study level: College

Poverty refers to a situation of server deprivation of basic human wants. With the help of eleven functions of global poverty, readers can understand why poverty exists in today’s society. Poverty has influenced the price of commodities, making products affordable for wealthy nations.

Developing countries provide ground for the manufacture of goods at cheaper prices because of the poor state. Foreign investors take advantage of cheap labor from periphery countries by paying workers insufficient wages. The wages provided are inefficient because they do not allow poor people to meet basic needs.

Global poverty plays a role in helping companies sustain increased profit margins. Business developers often strategize diverse measures of minimizing costs to acquire more revenue. This ideology can be achieved easily with the help of cheap labor. This explains why companies in developed countries need global poverty to earn more profits.

Availability of resources in developing countries needed by Western nations for industrialization perpetuates global poverty. Developed countries take advantage of deficiency in skills within poor countries to gain access to resources. For example, developed countries provide study scholarships to bright underprivileged children. Skills obtained by these pupils are drained by employing graduates to areas that demand scarce expertise within Western countries. This means that skills obtained by students become futile to developing states.

Poor states help Western countries advance in their medical practices. People from developing countries are used as guinea pigs for lab experiments. Unfortunately, the results benefit Western cultures while poor states depend on medical supplies from developed countries. This makes global poverty useful for core countries development.

Lack of job opportunities provides a foundation for further development of Western economies. This is achieved through brain drain; skills of the underprivileged are transferred to companies located in Western cultures. Creating job opportunities within developing states reduces chances for wealthy states to obtain cheap labor.

Poverty within developing countries creates room for dumping. Companies found in Western countries dump used products in poor states. This can be in the form of used cars or second-hand clothes. These products are usually dangerous for human consumption. For example, dumped cars are unsafe for Western roads. This also makes them dangerous for users within developing countries.

Poverty within developing countries provides job opportunities for some professionals from Western states. Advisors and researchers undertake studies on the poverty level of poor countries and provide underprivileged people with results through selling books. This acts like a business that benefits Western countries rather than local people.

Underdevelopment lays the foundation for cheap housing to people from Western cultures. Some foreigners go as charity workers intending to help the underprivileged. Through this strategy, poor states provide such people with the land. Charity workers make money from these lands and repatriate profit to their homelands.

Massive flow of resources to Western countries is easily perpetuated by poverty. People get opportunities in regional areas to work for a better payment not knowing that profit gained is used to develop the core states. This encourages Western countries to continue providing more job opportunities that can lure people to work in developed countries.

Underprivileged countries act as scapegoats for environmental risks that may affect developed countries. Foreign investors construct manufacturing industries in developing countries, but export finished products to wealthy states. All environmental risks such as pollution remain within poor states. This explains the reason why most foreign investors prefer constructing industries within developing countries.

Poverty has perpetuated discrimination through the pacification of workers. This helps in providing affordable goods to benefit the rich and poor. This strategy helps Western cultures maintain their authoritative state.