Poverty is a lack of goods and services that are necessary to maintain a standard of living. Unemployment is a major cause of poverty worldwide. There are many strategies for fighting poverty, but many are very unsuccessful. A major cause for these failures is establishing who lives in poverty.
Unemployment is the largest cause of poverty in the world. A major reason for unemployment is scarcity of jobs. in 1988, thirty-nine percent of people in Northeast America were unable to find work or unable to work because of school. Others could not find jobs because of conflict with family obligations such as child care.
Income support programs are the main form of assistance to the poor. One problem with cash support is that a perfectly employable person may take the cash as an incentive not to work. Cash support programs include unemployment insurance, workman's compensation, disability insurance, public service and veteran pensions.
A major reason that cash support programs are unsuccessful because of flaws in the system that measure poverty. The U.S. government uses a poverty index that reflects the use of money depending upon the size of the family, the gender of the family head, and the area where the family is located. These government statistics fail to take into consideration nonmonetary benefits needed by the poor.
Poverty is caused by a lack of money or goods. This may be caused by unemployment or low salary. Strategies for helping poverty are in effect, but many are unsuccessful because they have an inefficient system for establishing poverty.