General Purpose: To argue
Specific purpose: To argue that the government should stop direct help to the poor
Thesis Statement: The government should stop giving direct help to the poor because (1) As opposed to giving help to the poor, the government is supposed to solve problems perceived as general in nature and not those that are at individual level, (2) poverty is a social construct which is relative and not an objective status, (3) helping the poor is likely to discourage hard work as the poor will always be looking up to the government for help, (4) such programs are unlikely to solve the problem of poverty in the end (Karnani 2007).
Introduction
Reducing poverty has proved to be possible from an individual self-motivation.
Since being poor is a social construct, not everyone considered poor have the same feeling hence has that urge to get out of the social status they occupy,
The society’s definition of poverty is the state of lacking accepted amount of money or material possession,
This accepted amount of money or material possession will change from time to time and is not always constant (Karnani 2007).
Internal summary: This therefore means that providing financial or material help to the poor is not a guarantee that they will arise from their current social status and be better.
The government cannot reduce poverty by being fully participating in programs aimed at helping the poor
Helping the poor through government programs is likely to discourage hard work amongst those who are perceive as poor,
There is likelihood that some beneficiaries of such programs would want to maintain their social status to continue benefiting from such programs,
The long run impact of this is that it might even result into an increase in the number of poor people as others previously perceived as rich would want to fall in this category of “poor people” to get help from the government (Wunder 2008)
The government’s main role is to tackle general problem affecting the whole society by using general means. The government must thus ensure that:
There are equal opportunities for all to prosper,
Resources are equitably distributed,
Public services are accessible to all (Karnani 2009)
Internal Summary: By creating an enabling environment for the poor to work and improve their livelihood, the government indirectly initiates self-motivation amongst the poor hence can reduce poverty.
The main source of government revenue is taxes. The principle of “no direct benefit in exchange for tax” applied in the collection and use of these taxes only means that:
No one should get direct benefits from a taxation regime,
All taxes should be used for the public good,
All should contribute, in form of taxes, to the revenues of a country, (Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett 2010)
Internal Summary: The government helping the poor may create discomfort from other tax payers since they have a feeling that the poor directly benefit from the revenues of the country. This is against the principle the principles of taxation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that governments should not, at any moment, help the poor. Instead, the government should design policies that are for the better of the society as a whole.
These policies should be aimed at the whole society’s benefits and should not focus on individuals or favor certain groups or classes in the society.
Poverty cannot be completely eradicated since it is a social construct which can only be cured at individual levels
Adoption of principles like:
Pareto improvements which are policies that improves at least an individual’s life while making no other’s worse off and
Kaldor improvement which are policies that make some people worse off and others better off but leave the community better off,
Should only be applied other contexts but not in as far as government giving direct help to the poor is concerned (Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett, 2010).
In the long run, the amount of money or material possession may increase amongst individuals but the society’s level of acceptance will decrease hence in one way or the other, there will always exist those considered as poor in the society. This does not mean that the government has to always intervene in situations of poverty. Once there has been an enabling environment where everyone has access to basic resources and they are adequately empowered, the government shall have done enough.
References
Karnani, Aneel. "The mirage of marketing to the bottom of the pyramid: How the private sector can help alleviate poverty." California Management Review 49.4. 2007.: 90-111.
Wunder, Sven. "Payments for environmental services and the poor: concepts and preliminary evidence." Environment and development economics 13.03. 2008.: 279-297.
Wilkinson, Richard, and Kate Pickett. "The spirit level." Why equality is better for. 2010.
Yusuf, S. "There is a seemingly widespread view that inequality should not be a concern in countries striving to fight absolute poverty. Although inequality may well be high or rising in some developing countries, this increase is seen as the unavoidable by-product of the economic growth needed to reduce poverty. The message for policy is that poor countries—including their poor—need not worry too much about inequality." The Poorest and Hungry: Assessments, Analyses, and Actions: an IFPRI 2020 Book. 2009: 179.
Karnani, Aneel. "Romanticising the poor harms the poor." Journal of International Development 21.1. 2009: 76-86.
