How can we end poverty?

Poverty has been a part of the Philippines since I was born. Most of the time when I look at the news, headlines about the economy talks about poverty and its effects. Poverty is the living condition of not having enough means to afford the basic needs of an individual. This means that the people living in poverty do not have access to clean water, a safe home, nutrition, enough food and clothing. These people experiencing poverty has limited funds, sometimes they only have one meal a day.
Most of the time, poverty reduction increases economic growth because this means that the standard of living and capacity of a group of people increases. This happens when people living below the poverty line begins to rise up and earn more, making them more well-off, or enough to get them by the day. I’m sure all of us knows the state of living of those below the poverty line. We see the squatters area, we see beggars sleeping on the streets every night. We notice how young kids with poor family backgrounds beg for money, ask for food and engage into different types of activities just to be able to buy bread. Poverty has affected the lives of many people and has made the Philippines a hard country to develop.

Now, if you think about it- why is there poverty? What are the root causes of poverty? The Philippines is a third world country and I must say that it has already improved in terms of economic growth, foreign exchange, employment, etc, as compared to the past few years, making us a developing country. Poverty as mentioned exists when people do not have access to needs that are essential to live normally. They have unstable houses and most of the time, the policemen ask them to vacate their wooden houses located at the side of a bridge. These people do not have a sturdy roof where they could stay in during rainy days. They are unfortunate people who are unemployed, do not have any resource and yet, these same people get pregnant and increase the population of the economy.

As discussed in class, almost all of us believe that poverty is caused by three main reasons: corruption, lack of educational attainment and overpopulation. First of all, corruption in the Philippines is rampant. This can be widely seen based on the increase of poor people, the increase in taxes and yet nothing is happening to our country. The tax rate being collected from employees of corporations is quite high, it reached 32% at one point and yet no infrastructure or development is being constructed. It takes more than 10 years to finish an establishment and we still remain a developing country. Though it is easier said than done, I’m pretty sure almost everyone living in the Philippines notice how corrupt the country is. Officials reap the benefits and nothing is being distributed to the mass. This is exactly why I think Gibo Teodoro has potential in leading the country- because he stated facts and ideal goals in a span of ten years. He mentioned that the effect of the anticipated economic growth must trickle down to the lowest class, which is what I think the Philippines needs. Poverty elimination will not disappear over a day and it requires a lot of systematic planning before the Philippines could develop and have progress in terms of poverty. Secondly, the lack of education of the Filipinos widely contributes to the poverty rate in the country. If a person is not educated, then he has a lower opportunity to get hired. If he does not get hired, he won’t have money to get him by the day. If he gets used to this then he will beg for money or just gamble money if he gets any. The lack of education limits the chances of a person to progress, grow and develop wasting his capabilities and capacity to be a good citizen of the Philippines, but being born poor is not his problem. It was just his luck that he was born poor and thus, having no resources to actually get proper education. Here comes that problem of overpopulation. Why? Well, poor people are the ones that give birth most due to their belief that their child could raise their standard of living. However, they fail to put to mind that they do not have money which means their child may not even reach primary education. What is the effect of this? More people living in poverty, more people in the economy, pulling the Philippines down. The country’s money would be put to good use if the government could build small educational institutions in remote areas where vocational training could be taught to those in those areas. This would help the poor to at least earn a little and raise their standard of living. Lastly, population control here in the Philippines is uncontrollable. Population increases because more and more Filipinos give birth and most of the people who does live below the poverty line. What is the effect of this? The infant could gain infections and sicknesses due to the unsanitary environment and lack of nutrition. Filipinos must understand sex education and should know the consequences of their actions. They get involved with someone because of emotions but love will not raise them from poverty. I think the issue here is the way of thinking of the Filipinos. Perhaps the country should do something about this issue like limit the number of children per family up to a certain point.

Poverty is not a joke and though the rich does not feel the actual impact of poverty, this will affect everyone in the long run. If poverty does not decrease, the economy will never develop. Hence, the Philippines will forever be a developing country that is corrupt and behind all other states in the world.