Jesse A. Schroeder

In the simplest sense, “poverty” is the state of being poor, having insufficient resources to live independently day-to-day. However, even this definition begs the question, what is the standard for poor? For example, in the United States, “poor” would be making less than $10,000 a year. Yet around the world, many people survive on only a few dollars a day – far less than the standard of living in developed countries. This basic example is used to highlight the inherent complexities of poverty. In addition to relative social standards, other factors include the effects of education, race and gender, the cycle of poverty within families, the prevalence of mental illness among the poor, and the accessibility to resources within differing regions of the world.

Therefore, my personal definition of poverty would be the state of being below the standard of living for a given country or region, a phenomenon that will continue throughout human history but will vary in its description and standards as societies progress and decline. But there is deeper aspect of poverty, highlighted in the video show in class, which must be described.

The video began with the question, “Does this disturb you?” and proceeded to list statistics of poverty along with sentimental images. Clearly, the point of the video is to show that such statistics and images should upset any person who takes the time to think about it. I believe that this is truly the essence of poverty: A state of existence so disparate, there exists an inherent power to draw people from differing socio-economic statuses together, and in such a “coming together” an experience of life that goes beyond “poor” and “wealthy” is found.

I will further explain the inherent power – and beauty – of poverty by pointing out the fundamental flaw in the video from class. While the video gave many compelling statistics regarding poverty, it failed to quantify the rate of happiness amongst the poor. Of course, this is because happiness is very difficult to quantify. The subliminal message of the video was this: “People living in poverty, like those pictured in this video, live in very bad situations in terms of material goods, and therefore the life of the poor is worse than the life of the wealthy.” But we all know that there are people who are wealthy who are unhappy, and there are people who are extremely poor who exhibit joy and satisfaction in life. Something about human nature does not depend solely upon material goods in order to determine the quality of life.

What then is social work? Or in other words, if the poor are able to be happy, why work to remedy the situation? Why not allow human beings to live disconnected lives, maintaining the existing socio-economic statuses? The answer is that to do so would be to miss out on the experience of “coming together,” the experience that, as previously mentioned, goes beyond material goods to the core value of a society, namely the connection between human beings. Poverty, in its worst forms, separates and disconnects people. The poor live in “ghettos” and the wealthy move further away into the suburbs. Separate cultures of the poor and the rich develop, and the two paths rarely cross in daily life. But, as the profession of social work demonstrates, societies cannot exist fully separate from one another. Rather, the inherent power of poverty draws those who are privileged to attempt to engage and assist those in need, thereby bringing what was once separate together and creating something better.

Poverty, in its most beautiful forms, takes us beyond any measurement of material goods. Smiles, laughter, hugs, shaking hands and offering a kind go beyond quantifiable value. The practice between two people of offering and receiving help is of such worth that it literally erases the lines of poverty. This is why I want to be a social worker. Issues like poverty draw humans together, and at the point of intersection between two souls where more is found in common than dissimilar, a new way of life emerges. This way of life goes beyond statistics, heart-wrenching images, and or governmental policies. This way of life teaches me that to really live, to really experience life, I have to give of myself to another person, and I have to be willing to receive life from others.

Poverty, in all its forms, pushes me to live this in this way. Poverty is simply the external catalyst that sparks the encounter, casting a hopeful light on what statistics say is a dark world.