Poverty is a standard of living that is the exact opposite of wealth. Those affected by poverty have no or minimal opportunity to acquire the necessary attributes for life, support their families, and pay for important services.
People faced with poverty are tormented by need, hunger, and this pushes them to many negative actions, such as theft. In some people, poverty can develop evil feelings and envy, and lead to despair. But, on the other hand, sometimes a poor person turns out to be much kinder, more honest and more generous than a rich person.
Causes of poverty:
- Lifestyle - there is a category of people who are satisfied with their situation and do not want to change anything, due to their unwillingness to work;
- Alcoholism and drug addiction - a person who is addicted often loses all valuables and money to satisfy unnecessary needs;
- Low wages are the most common reason;
- Unemployment.
Wealth is the material well-being of a person or a certain population. A rich person is considered to be a person who owns real estate, has large savings, and has more than the necessary income.
In the modern world, with the help of wealth you can solve many problems, allow yourself to satisfy your needs and not have to suffer from want. The richer a person is, the more society shows respect for him. Basically, wealth spoils people; people endowed with power and money often become greedy and arrogant.
Possessing significant financial assets, a person can begin to go crazy; this becomes less and less enough for him; a desire appears to get even more at any cost, committing various crimes. A good example of this is the famous fairy tale “About the Goldfish”. But among them there are also people with kind souls. There are often cases when a rich person engages in charity and donates large sums of money to various foundations and shelters, thereby helping the poor. This suggests that there is good and bad in everything, what matters is what the person chooses.
In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether a person is poor or rich, the main thing is to preserve only the best moral qualities in oneself and not allow bad ones to develop. Many great people have been both poor and rich.
Several interesting essays
- The theme of the demon and demonism in Lermontov's works
Almost throughout his entire writing career, Lermontov developed the theme of demonism. It goes back to the biblical writings about a fallen angel who rebelled against the creator and became an evil spirit.
- Analysis of the story Spring Waters by Turgenev
The work belongs to the late lyrical work of the writer and considers the manifestation of human relationships as the main theme.
- Features of realism in the comedy Woe from Wit by Griboyedov
The realism of the work created by the writer is expressed in the disclosure of the meaningful meaning of the play, contained in the contradictions of existing reality.
- Analysis of Zoshchenko's story Case history
The work is a comedic story, the main theme of which is the pressing problem of human relationships, described using the example of an ordinary hospital institution.
In the modern world, where money and power practically decide everything, even the person closest to you can betray you. Now money comes first, and concepts such as courage, kindness
He who fears poverty is unworthy of wealth.
Voltaire
Quotes about poverty
The one who places all his hopes in wealth is truly poor.
Andrey Lavrukhin
It is not poverty that is unbearable, but contempt. I can do without everything, but I don't want anyone to know about it.
Voltaire
Poverty is a state that seems natural, but there is nothing to compare it with yet.
Alexander Kruglov
Anyone who has had to live in poverty knows how difficult it is to be poor.
James Baldwin
Not being able to endure poverty is shameful. Not being able to get rid of it through hard work is even more shameful.
Pericles
"Poverty is not a vice." Of course! Vice is a very pleasant thing.
Paul Leotode
You may not be ashamed of poverty, but you cannot help but feel its severity. Just like in winter it’s not a shame to walk without a fur coat, but it’s cold.
Fedor N. Glinka
Poverty is not a vice. If it were a vice, they would not be ashamed of it.
Jerome Jerome
It is as impossible to end poverty as it is to build a house without a ground floor.
Igor Efimov
Poverty is slavery, but excessive wealth is also slavery.
Since ancient times, man has strived for abundance and prosperity. For yourself, your family, your people, and sometimes all nations together. Sages, inventors, travelers, generals - each in his own way tried to bring the age of abundance closer. Alas, the world is not ideal. The age of complete abundance is still a pipe dream for humanity. To better understand the problem and try to find ways to solve it, it is worth studying two fundamental concepts: poverty and wealth.
For any of the peoples of the world, poverty has always become a terrible test. Scientists define poverty as the economic characteristic of a person or group of people who cannot afford to have a certain minimum set of essential goods. Philosophers and poets viewed poverty differently. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed: “Poverty does not consist in a decrease in property, but in an increase in gluttony.” “I find nothing attractive or instructive in poverty,” the famous actor Charlie Chaplin said about poverty. Various people addressed the topic of poverty in their works: philosophers and poets, artists and politicians. A. N. Ostrovsky sums them up well in his work. “Poverty is not a vice,” says Ostrovsky, summing up the opinions of millions in three simple words.
The exact opposite of poverty is wealth. The scientific definition of wealth is: “Wealth is the abundance of tangible and intangible assets in a person or society, such as money, capital goods, real estate or personal property.” The question arises whether wealth is the missing milestone for achieving global abundance. Russian writer D.I. Fonvizin wrote about wealth like this: “Leave wealth to children? If they are smart, they will manage without him; and wealth is no help to a stupid son. Cash is not cash worth. The golden idiot is everyone’s idiot.” It turns out that wealth cannot play a decisive role in creating world prosperity. But what can we do? It seems to me that the solution is simple, and it lies in the harmonious combination of wealth and poverty, as two halves of one whole.
Of course, this is easier said than done. There is a big gap between wealth and poverty. But common happiness must be built together. World history has repeatedly proven to man that his strength lies in unity with others. And therefore I think that if each person, having built his own happiness, shares it with others, then the age of abundance will definitely come.
I chose this topic because the topic of poverty and wealth can be considered the most significant of all social problems, inherent in any social systems at all times. The problem of wealth and poverty has worried the minds of millions of people since time immemorial, when, with the advent of private property and inequality, the period of primitive communal “communism” ended and a transition was made to a civilization in which primitive equality was replaced by social stratification, characterized by an uneven distribution of the most limited resources of society - money, power, education and prestige between different strata (layers) of the population. The problem of wealth and poverty does not lose its relevance today, especially for Russia. Russia's transition to a market economy was accompanied by a rapid stratification of society into rich and poor. According to official data from Rosstat, the number of people with incomes below the subsistence level in 2013 amounted to 19.6 million people. Thus, poor citizens make up 13.8% of the total population of Russia. Having looked through many dictionaries from the dictionaries of Dahl and Ozhegov to the encyclopedic dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron, one can define the concepts of poverty and wealth as the economic state of people in relation to money and property, characterized by a certain level of income and expenses. Whether a person is rich or poor depends on the amount of money and necessary goods and access to them. As the people say: “The poor are empty, but the rich are thick.” The poor have low levels of income and expenses, as a result of which they cannot maintain the desired standards of living, while the rich person has an abundance of material and intangible assets, such as money, means of production, real estate or personal property. Nobody voluntarily wants to be poor, everyone wants to be rich. Why then can't most people become rich? Many scientists, such as Aristotle, Plato, T. Hobbes, P.-J., sought answers to this question. Proudhon, F. Nietzsche, G. Marcuse, E. Fromm, F. Hayek. M. Weber, T. Veblen, W. Sombart, K. Marx, P. Sorokin, F. Engels. A. Smith and others. Poverty is a consequence of diverse and interrelated reasons, which are grouped into the following groups: economic (unemployment, low wages, low labor productivity, uncompetitiveness of the industry); socio-medical (disability, old age, high morbidity); demographic (single-parent families, a large number of dependents in the family); educational and qualification (low level of education, insufficient professional training); political (military conflicts, forced migration); regional-geographical (uneven development of regions); fatalistic (the cause of poverty is seen in the lack of luck and twists of fate).
I believe that in addition to objective reasons leading to poverty, there are also subjective reasons. Now scientists are talking about the existence of a psychology of poverty. A certain amount of blame for one’s situation of poverty lies with the person himself. Character traits such as laziness, passivity, lack of goals in life, low adaptability, low self-esteem, fear, fear of change, lack of enterprise and initiative, and alcoholism are also causes of poverty. A rich person has a completely different way of thinking than a poor person. A rich person is confident in his abilities, believes in success, is not afraid of difficulties and considers all possibilities to achieve his goal, while a poor person believes that he will not succeed, that nothing depends on him, he is fixated on obstacles. The poor only dream of wealth that is inaccessible to them, and the rich take action to get it. Poor people associate with losers, envy the rich and resent their success, considering wealth to be evil and all rich people to be dishonest and bad. Rich people learn from successful people, they admire them and do everything to become successful.
My opinion is that poverty and wealth are determined not by gold, but by the attitude towards it.
That’s right, says the ancient wisdom: “Happy is not the one who has a lot, but the one who has enough!”
Material well-being must be combined with spiritual wealth. Much depends on the person himself, on his choice. We need to teach people to be rich both materially and spiritually.
Since ancient times, man has strived for abundance and prosperity. For yourself, your family, your people, and sometimes all nations together. Sages, inventors, travelers, generals - each in his own way tried to bring the age of abundance closer. Alas, the world is not ideal. The age of complete abundance is still a pipe dream for humanity. To better understand the problem and try to find ways to solve it, it is worth studying two fundamental concepts: poverty and wealth.
For any of the peoples of the world, poverty has always become a terrible test. Scientists define poverty as the economic characteristic of a person or group of people who cannot afford to have a certain minimum set of essential goods. Philosophers and poets viewed poverty differently. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed: “Poverty does not consist in a decrease in property, but in an increase in gluttony.” “I find nothing attractive or instructive in poverty,” the famous actor Charlie Chaplin said about poverty. Various people addressed the topic of poverty in their works: philosophers
and poets, artists and politicians. A. N. Ostrovsky sums them up well in his work. “Poverty is not a vice,” says Ostrovsky, summing up the opinions of millions in three simple words.
The exact opposite of poverty is wealth. The scientific definition of wealth is: “Wealth is the abundance of a person or society of tangible and intangible assets, such as money, means of production, real estate or personal property.” The question arises whether wealth is the missing milestone for achieving global abundance. Russian writer D.I. Fonvizin wrote about wealth this way: “Leave wealth to children? If they are smart, they will manage without him; and wealth is no help to a stupid son. Cash is not cash worth. The golden idiot is everyone’s idiot.” It turns out that wealth cannot play a decisive role in creating world prosperity. But what can we do? It seems to me that the solution is simple, and it lies in the harmonious combination of wealth and poverty, as two halves of one whole.
Of course, this is easier said than done. There is a big gap between wealth and poverty. But common happiness must be built together. World history has repeatedly proven to man that his strength lies in unity with others. And therefore I think that if each person, having built his own happiness, shares it with others, then the age of abundance will definitely come.
