Families in Poverty

I never realized until this class that there were two definitions of poverty; relative and absolute poverty. I always thought of poverty as being poor, unable to afford the necessities of life, living on the street. Now I know that poverty can be defined as making less than the average Canadian, which isn't too bad.


I would like to go into social inequality and stratification in terms of Habermas' Paradigms.

The first paradigm called Empirical-Analytic, views poverty in terms of hierarchy, and the different levels of socioeconomic status. Although it acknowledges that inequality exists, it doesn’t do anything about it.

Second there is the Critical Theoretic Paradigm that talks about the notion of class. It sees society as being structured by conflict and values Karl Marx as its main theorist. The view of this Paradigm that made me question society was that why can someone work so hard and not become any wealthier? If you are hard working, you should be able to get yourself out of the slums of society.

The last Paradigm is the Situational Interpretive which looks at poverty through individuals’ lived experiences.

Another thing was the influences that cause poverty. Macro level causes including the countries minimum wages, and micro level causes like education level and employability. I strongly believe that if you are poor in Canada there are many resources available to help you get your life back on track, and anyone who is poor just isn’t trying. However I have never been in poverty, and have always had a strong network of support around me. I think it is sad that the working poor can’t make enough to get out of poverty. This upsets me.

I think money has been so emphasized in our society that we place it above many things. It comes in between marriages and families. One suggestion that I would put in place for immigrants would be firstly free English lessons, and then phone numbers that they can call to get a job. If you are leaving your country to escape poverty, Canada should by now have the resources to help you live comfortably.

Rob proposed an interesting statement in class; “Families who are poor have no one to blame but themselves”. I would like to go into this a little. Some families who are poor should blame themselves if their poverty is a result of addictions, or maladaptive behaviors. Single mothers on the other hand are not to blame at all. They can work as hard as possible and not have enough to take care of however many children they have. Also widowed families are not to blame, as they may have been left with a mountain of debt that they will never hope to repay. Those are my opinions on poverty and families in poverty.