Economic recession is the period when the economy of a country is performing poorly. There are many problems encountered during this period and in most cases it affects citizens of that country. It was thought that this problem would end soon but it has turned out to be an historical event because it is happening every year in different countries. During this period, the import exceeds export because the country produces less forcing it to import either goods or services from other countries. This is the hardest time for the government because even its currency becomes valueless compared to other currencies. Different economists have come up with reasons for why it happens, who are mostly affected and who are favored during that period. These economists have stated different effects of this recession according to their approaches they used.
Economic recession affects poor people than the rich due to inflation. Inflation is a situation when the price of goods and services goes up. The system used to impose tax is not fair; it is little understood by poor people and therefore benefits rich people (William 2001). This is according to Easterly, William. And Fischer, Stanley. They argue that the rich can protect themselves against inflation better than the poor because they are able to access financial institutions to borrow money to curb inflation. The poor may also be depending more on the state income which is not indexed to inflation and mostly reduces. For the case of retired people, their pension incomes will dramatically reduce, government subsidies will also reduce meaning poor citizens will not access essential services they need from the government. They also argue that even though the most affected people are the poor, inflation has some impact on rich ones. This is because some of the effects of inflation come through capital taxation which affects rich people with huge capital. They disagreed on the fact that it only affects poor people only.
The next impact of economic recession is poor health services. According to Gelberg, Andersen, and Leake, most of the population do not get health services. The most affected group is women. There is high number of homeless women in USA compared to other developed countries in the world (Gilbert 2003). According to author, this is due to lack of national health insurance and welfare system. Most of those homeless people have many children and the reason why they don’t access good health services is lack of finance and resources to meet their personal health creed. Homeless women are at higher risks of death, illness and poor nutrition and violence. They live in poor conditioned environment full of risks. There are barriers which have made them miss this health care. (Gilbert 2003). He concluded that health of parenting and pregnant women be taken with a serious note and necessary improvement should be done like building of hospitals and supply of clean water for drinking.
The other effects of recession are that the level of poverty increase tremendously and develop inequality divergence. According to the author there are two developments that take place during recession period. The first one is poverty and secondly, the degree of inequality increases. He shows that the degree of poverty increase with increase in the number of jobless people. Unemployment becomes the big problem exposing people to low standard of living such that nobody can be able to cater for her/himself.
The fourth effect of recession is inequality in education. According to Somersalo, H. and Solantus, people with low income do not access education because of lack of resources to meet school fees. Children from these families don’t get access to education as compared with those from well doing families (Solantus 2010). He argued that children needs special attention and therefore the government should put some measures to ensure those children who come from poor families get education through building schools near their premises.
The next effect of recession is increase in crimes and violence cases. According to Box, increase in number of crimes is caused by unemployment, poverty and idleness (Box 2007). People try earning living through stealing from those who have so that they can get something to use to buy food. The author has given measures that can be taken to reduce the level of crimes in the country. Some of them are creating job opportunities to everybody and focus much on poor families, involve youth different activities to keep them busy.
My thesis is agreeing that economic recession is affecting poor people than rich people. The reasons why I have come up with this agreement are that according to these authors, each has specified very clearly that poor people are vulnerable to recession. If we look around our community, it is shown that if you do not have money, your family is going to be living low standard of life. You will not be able to attend medical services together with your family. The only people who can afford these are the rich men. They even sometimes go overseas to look for medical care where as you cannot afford it in your local place. This is very painful and the government should look for a better way to deal with this either by building hospitals near them or sponsoring those who are an able to pay.
The other reason is in education sector. Children from rich families are the ones who get education. Those from poor families cannot afford it and that is the reason why jobs are occupied by people from rich families. When you go for an interview, a child from rich family will be considered first and in most cases he/she will be the one to get that job. This means people are employed according to their class and standard of living. This is what we call corruption and it is upon the government to safeguard the rights of the poor. Children from poor families are exposed to many risks. They live in poorly ventilated areas full of mosquitoes, dirty water, little food and some of them don’t have clothes. All these benefits are enjoyed by rich families. Medical attention is not given the highest priority for poor people because if you look around places with homeless people, there are no hospitals but around well doing families, they are flooded. Government should build new houses for such people.
Crimes occur in slum areas where people are jobless. It is not a fashion for one to involve in such cases but he/she tries to earn a living. Women involve themselves in sex behavior so that they can get something to cater for their many children. Others opt to work as house maid so that at least they can afford food. This is very painful and shameful to our leaders. Recession is not a natural phenomenon but it is something caused by our fellow people so that they benefit from it. They use tax paid to pocket themselves leaving them to have miserable life. For example if we take the case of inflation, most rich people withhold goods so that their prices can go up and earn more profit. This is inhuman and government should put measures to deal with such people. It is upon the authority to put laws that will protect poor people from being exploited by rich people.
In conclusion, economic recession have many negative impact to a common citizen hence, authorities should try their bests to go away with it. This will protect the future of the coming generation who may not be lack to have enough for their living.
References
1. Box, S. (2007). Recession, Crime and Punishment. New York: Barnes and Noble.
2. Easterly, William. And Fischer, Stanley. (2009). Inflation and the poor. Ohio: Journal of Money,
Credit and Banking.
3. Kolodko, G. (2009). Incomes Policy, Equity Issues, and Poverty reduction in Transition Economies. The Political Economy of Post socialist Transformation 2009; 103-213.
4. Saunders, P. (2010). Poverty, Inequality and Recession. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Somersalo, H. and Solantus, T. (2010). Economic recession and inequality in education:
children needing special services focus. New York: Routledge.
