The Five Ps of Poverty

Cate Biggs, the editor of the World Savvy Monitor and Writing for Global Engagement, came to speak to us about the causes of poverty.  Her talk was helpful and informative. We learned about the Five P’s of poverty.

There are 6 billion people in the world. One billion of that have what they need. Four billion of that have hope that they can get what they need. And the rest live in poverty and they get a dollar a day for the very hard work that they do.

Poor people in poor countries face huge challenges. Food is hard to get, they have to take six hours out of their day do get water and the water is sometimes not clean. No electricity, no roads so it’s hard to get from place to place, education is hard to get, there are a lot of diseases, not a lot of healthcare, and unfair rules of law, so someone can steal something and it won’t even mater.

The first P of poverty is PLACE. You don’t want to be in a country with the climate being very hot because then you have a scarce amount of water. Also you don’t want to be next to a poor country. The USA has a good climate, not a lot of diseases, and great coastlines. Chad is poor because it is small, landlocked, and has bad climate.

The second P is PAST.  A country's past matters because if your country had slaves that were sent to the USA then they took advantage of them.

The third P is PEOPLE. Overpopulation matters because if you have too many people and not enough space and not enough resources then you will have a country in poverty and you hard time controlling diseases. The USA normally has two babies per woman. In Chad it’s normally five babies per woman. 99% of people can read in the USA but only 25% of people can read in Chad. 

The fourth P in poverty is POLITICS. Nearly all voters in the USA can read. But, less then 25% of voters can read in Chad! Also the US government is all connected. But, in Chad the government spreads out.

The last P in poverty is PEACE. There are a lot of wars in the countries in poverty. For example, in Chad, after a war they are more likely to start up another. Chad is surrounded with war and bad things. Poverty is a cycle. The P’s of poverty keep the countries in poverty. India and China jumped out of poverty.  The USA is helping a lot with the countries in poverty by giving money. The USA has given of one trillion dollars to the countries in poverty. What you can do is, understand, act, and educate.
  

Post written by Elizabeth C