Poverty is a major problem in the United States today. Social, economical, political, and cultural factors all contribute to poverty. Education and economic development are two major issues that will help prevent poverty. The United States Census Bureau defines poverty as an "economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain basic needs for food, housing, clothing, health services and education." In other words, poverty is powerlessness, a lack of representation and freedom. Poverty is an issue that the world faces everyday. There are two ways to categorize poverty in a sociologist viewpoint. Absolute poverty simply refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford the necessities of life, whereas relative …show more content…

For cultural factors, biased IQ test would be interconnected to substandard schools. These tests measure a student's school achievement. And if there are substandard schools, the students who are placed into the higher groups, they will do better than those who are placed in a lower group. And thus these IQ tests would lead to the deficiency theory, which suggests that "the poor are poor because they do not measure up to the more well to do in intellectual endowment". Also the social factor of racial discrimination is interconnected to the cultural factor of the minority race. Those who are the minority, the main culture will produce basic assumptions about minority's abilities to be successful or well being. For political factors, meritocracy would be interconnected with the minority race. Meritocracy basically is the social classification by an individual's personal ability. The top wealthy and powerful elite population produces meritocracy. These are the people who believe that "the fundamental assumption of capitalism is individual gain without regard for what the resulting behaviors may mean for other people, especially those in poverty". Every social class has different values and means of living but the most important value that should be equal between each class is the value of