Poverty In the First World

What we know about first world poverty

Human capital Flight

• First world poverty occurs primarily in areas of extremely high and extremely low population densities
• Poverty and quality of education are related however the exact relationship is currently unknown
• On average it takes 1.5 generations for a family to get out of poverty
• Nearly every developed nation with significant ethnic diversity a disproportionate amount of minority citizens live in poverty

Link between rural areas and poverty

• Phenomena in which highly skilled individuals emigrate from regions with low opportunity
• considered to be one of the most important contributes to regional poverty cycles

• Lack of opportunity is a major contributor
• More likely to lack infrastructure and assistance programs
• Often strong traditional values in rural regions cause people to be less likely to seek help esp. in Scotland and Appalachian region
• Many rural jobs are based on mineral resources esp. in Scotland, Appalachian region and South Africa tighter national and international regulations reduce the number of available jobs and the job skills are often non-transferable

Important statistics

• approximately 15% of people living in first world are impoverished
• approximately 19% of children in developed nations live in poverty
• worldwide 3/4 of impoverished households had one family member working at least 40 hours a week
• 1/4 of people living in poverty are considered food insecure

Sources

References

Brady, D., Fullerton, A. S., & Cross, J. M. (2010). More Than Just Nickels and Dimes: A Cross-National Analysis of Working Poverty in Affluent Democracies. Social Problems, 57(4), 559-585.

Dercon, S. (2009). Rural Poverty: Old Challenges in New Contexts. The World Bank Research Observer, 24(1), 1-28. doi: 10.1093/wbro/lkp003

Food Security. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/

Foodsecurityindex.eiu.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.websitelooker.net/www/foodsecurityindex.eiu.com

Glăvan, B. (2008). Brain Drain: A Management or a Property Problem? American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 67(4), 719-737.

Poverty and high school dropouts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/indicator/2013/05/poverty-dropouts.aspx

Poverty in virginia. (n.d.). 2010 Poverty Summit Report (Short Version without Appendices). Retrieved November 9, 2014, from http://www.dss.virginia.gov/geninfo/reports/agency_wide/poverty_short.pdf

Raphael, S. (2009). Immigration and Poverty in the United States. The American Economic Review, 99(2, Papers and Proceedings of the One Hundred Twenty-First Meeting of the American Economic Association), 41-44.

Shubin, S. (2010). Cultural exclusion and rural poverty in Ireland and Russia. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(4), 555-570. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2010.00402.x

Woods, B. R., & Gordon, J. S. (2011). Mountaintop Removal and Job Creation: Exploring the Relationship Using Spatial Regression. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(4), 806-815. doi: 10.1080/00045608.2011.567947

Link between poverty and education

• While the exact statistics vary from country to country in impoverished areas schools are significantly less likely to be accredited
• on average dropout rates for impoverished students up to 5 times higher than their wealthier peers
• Significant disparity in the amount of students completing post secondary education
• However students from impoverished backgrounds who do complete post-secondary degrees are more likely to seek graduate level education

Poverty In the First World

Josef Dumler