PPE: Poverty, Power, and Ego
According to the article by G.F.R. Ellis, there are four different dimensions of poverty.[1] These are economic, social, political, and legal.[2] Looking at these dimensions, it seems to me that the root cause of poverty is ego. This ego manifests itself in power. To feed the ego, cunning individuals go to great lengths to amass power and money to ensure their desires. Just as the rapist is the only cause of rape, abusers are the sole cause of poverty. I want to take a closer look into how these individuals use the power they gain in the different dimensions of poverty.
Abuse of economic Power is one of the most visible causes of poverty. Every day, I can see examples of the rich that use their money to ensure their assets grow and make sure the poor can’t climb the ranks. These would come in the form of securing economic resources and profiteering off of it. Plantation tycoons using their assets to skew the supply side of the law of supply and demand to have more. The use of bullying by land tycoons to acquire land occupied by those that barely have any purely for economic gain.
Social Power is a bit more nuanced because it is sometimes invisible to the abuser. Sometimes certain norms have been culturally accepted that tilt the balance of power to or from a particular group of people. People discriminate for varied reasons, from religion to the color of the skin. If you are part of a specific religious group, you have secured special treatment in some government offices. If you are of darker skin, you may have a glass ceiling on your salary. These abuses are so ingrained in the culture’s social identity that, in some cases, pointing them out may be considered a call to revolution.[3]
Political Power is weird because it comes directly from the people that the opportunists are abusing. A graphic circulates the internet during election times where a line of sheep is deciding whether to vote for the Lion or the Wolf.[4] Political Power can give the abuser power of legislation to pave a way to make sure their schemes are legal. The most significant blow to the people is that the money supposed to circulate stops at these predators’ pockets.
Legal power is when people use the law to justify their means to acquire much more than they usually. I believe there are two ways the facilities of the law can aid the abuser. The first is when they use legislation, same as above. The second is when the abuser, using what knowledge of law enforcement (not the law per se), asserts his claim through force. I believe that this is one of the most dangerous because the government relies on the armed forces’ goodwill, so it may be hard to police Police Behavior.
Poverty cannot be successfully managed because the world’s resources are limited unlike human greed. The people that want more take from those with less. However, I don’t believe all people with power are abusers or evil people. Some are genuinely in the position that they are in because of noble causes. The world isn’t black and white, where we can say all rich people are terrible people. All I can say is that I believe that these people need to keep their egos in check. Sadly however, these people seldom do. It can even be seen in the news, that even during a pandemic some people are still trying to further their economic and political agenda to the point of using smokescreen tactics to distract the hungry and dying public.[5]
References
[1] Ellis, G. F. R.: 1980, The Quality of Life Concept: An Overall Framework for Assessment Schemes, Working Paper №30, SALDRU.
[2] Tomaselli, V., Cantone, G. G., Crocetta, C., Antonucci, L., Marino, M., Ilmakunnas, I., . . . Wang, J. (n.d.). Social Indicators Research. Retrieved from https://www.springer.com/journal/11205/
[3] Klarman, Michael J.,Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement [electronic resource] : abridged edition of From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 55.
[4] (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sadmoment.com/sheep-on-voting-for-a-lion-or-a-wolf-on-election-day/
[5] Sonny Africa, I. F. (2020, November 06). The Duterte administration’s borrowing spree. Retrieved from https://news.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/10/05/20/the-duterte-administrations-borrowing-spree
