Name: Iris
Professor: Mei-Ya Liang
Number: 991002014
Department: English
Course: Sophomore Composition
Date: January 5, 2012
Unbalanced Right in Society Causes the Problem of Poverty
Power group as government or businessman who has the right to control economy resource and balance, sometimes causes different problems of poverty by exploiting workers or deciding unfair economy circulation rule. Workers can not retrieve what they deserved, and can just own the small proportion of the benefit that is come from their hard working. This phenomenon is ever where in our society, even that, it exists all over the world. To talk about the poverty, there are two concepts of it. The first one is the conventional statement of poverty that is people who are in the condition of shorting of fortune or basic living resource. The second one is the poverty that focuses on psychological. People keep pursuing power, space and fortune although their present economy is well enough to support their daily life and their amusement. This strong desire for money and right is called psychological poverty. The owner of Nobel peace prize in 2006 was the man who was called ‘‘the poor’s banker’’-Muhammad Yunus. He built the bank called Grameen Bank to help the poor by landing them money without any need of security or guarantor. I receive some of his information in a magazine and try to understand the problem he wants to solve. Use Yunus’ idea as a starting point, I want to observe the poverty problem comes from unbalance right in society, especially in the subject of economy.
First, to talk about a condition that how power group control poor’s mind. To think about a question: Do the poor understand that they are living under power group’s exploit or control? To use the article ‘Psychology of Poverty: Why Poor People Buy Lottery Tickets’ as an example to explain the condition. It talks about a research which compares the action and desire for buying lottery tickets with income. It was interesting how the researchers differentiate between the rich and the poor. Researchers want the participants to decide whether they are rich or poverty by themselves. They influenced participants' perceptions of their relative wealth — or lack thereof — by having them complete a survey on their opinions of the city of Pittsburgh
To fellow the concept that the poor do not understand that they are living under power group’s control, here I use an example in the video of ‘‘Muhammad Yunus- Grameen Bank’’, Yunus described economical activities in a rural village. Women who made bamboo furniture had to take out usurious loans for buying bamboo, and to pay their profits to the moneylenders. The poor keep working hard and try to depart from poverty, however sometimes, it is not their fault to being poor; it means that the poor living style is not made by them. It is because the society system and vicious oppression from the power group as their boss or the businessmen that causes their terrible economy conditions. Besides, Yunus made an example by being a slave to explain how terrible the economy condition in Bangladesh
Next, I will try to explain the relation in economy circulation between the power group, the rich and the poor. ‘They said it came from the heart of the earth, to test the heart of the man’. The first line in the movie trailer of Blood Diamond (Zwick, 2006) hints us how the fortune attracts human being, and the misery comes from scrambling for diamond. The rebel army forces black people to collect diamond in a river, however, after they successfully find rare diamonds in that muddy river, they could not keep the diamonds as their own. They have to hand them in, in addition, they would not have any chance to share any benefit from the diamond and could not get any reward. The black protagonist, Solomon, tried to own a rare pink diamond as his own secretly and decided to pretend that he didn’t find anything. However, the guarder was aware of his attempt and from then on; Solomon’s destiny was wholly changed. There are three leading characters in this movie. First one was Solomon, who wanted to use the diamond to support his family departing from the poverty and the life style as slaves. The second one was Danny, who was an illegal seller of diamond worked for government official, who regarded rare pink diamond as a great chance that could help him to become richer and depart from the unstable life style. The third one was a rebel army who needed that diamond for exchanging fortune to buy better weapons. For three different reasons and different standpoints, this diamond became a fatal attraction not only cause the death of innocent people during their fight, but also cause the death of rebel army’s conscience. In this movie, Solomon is a symbol of the poor, who tried to improve his life but was exploited by a power group. The rebel army was regarded as that power group which forced the poor to be bogged down in poverty. On top of that, Danny was regard as the rich who desire for fortune to compensate his greedy mind toward high stander in society and sumptuous life style. Danny’s present property was enough to support his life, but he still pursue for more. So this may be regarded as a motion to satisfy his psychological poverty.
Using the connection between Solomon, rebel army and Denny to discuss how society and the rich influence or maybe, cause the poor’s poverty. To express anguish toward the unfair society and army’s cruelty, Solomon said, ‘my family, my home, I could not lost everything.’ It is just like the voice from poor’s heart to fight against the cruel environment and society that bogged them down to the poverty. The rebel army’s exploitation was the social unfriendly environment toward the poor. The poor’s poverty was because they didn’t have the power to protect their right and dignity. Those who can get the power and the right of management will control the economy condition. That was the right’s unbalance and social sternly cool toward poor’s no ability to fight for their rights that cause the poor’s permanent poverty. Beside, the rich didn’t prevent that exploitation toward the poor because they also obtain rewards from this unfair condition, and these rewards could just compensate for their psychological poverty that always keep them to pursue more fortune and power.
Beside the active exploitation, sometimes power groups’ misunderstand will also strengthen the low status’ being exploit. The misunderstand means that the power owner didn’t actually know the reality of the economy environment. They may just understand some unilateral conditions but apply it to all the familiar conditions. Their wrong judgment may influence the low status’ right by exploiting what they should own. Here I use news as an example to explain what I want to express. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). DPP recently promoted an advertisement which focuses on the price of Taiwanese fruits. In this advertisement, DPP told people that the price of banana was only NT$2 pre kilogram. However, after reporters investigated, the real price of banana was three times higher than that of DPP’s handbill. Banana famers emphasized that the price of NT$2 per kilogram was in June. After the government adopted price adjustment measures and long-term monitoring mechanisms to help farmers deal with a surplus production of bananas; the problem about banana’s low price had been solved temporarily. Price today in the market was at least NT$15 pre kilogram. Banana famers are very worried that people would be confused by this advertisement and therefore misunderstand the price of banana was that low. One of the banana famers told the reporter that DPP could not used the price of inferior bananas as the price of the high- grade ones. This misunderstanding might impact banana’s price, and hence, innocent banana famers.
Power groups’ misunderstanding will influence the people in lower status. Farmers work so hard to cultivate fruit; however they could not decide the price by themselves. Famers know fruit the most. They cultivate each kind of products, plants by their own hands and can discriminate the quality of the fruit. They should have the right to decide the price of their labor, but actually, they are not getting what they deserve. On the other hands, middlemen as the power group decide the price of famers’ products. They buy farmers’ products at a low price in a large amount. The price may not be equal to the efforts and prime cost that the money famers used to buy the seeds and fertilizer. Famers became cheap slaves to help middlemen earn money by their hard working. In this news, the price that farmers sold to the middlemen was NT$6 per kilogram. However, the market price was NT$15 per kilogram. Although the government had try to raise the price, the famers still could not get profit from that ‘‘NT$15’ ’. Middlemen and the retail store got most of the benefits from the products; however, farmers’ diligence could not receive the reward they deserve. The impact of this erroneous information has taken its toll on the price of banana and hence, the farmers.
Unbalanced right between power group and the poor cause the problems of poverty. However, the reason that causes this condition is not only because the exploitation from power owners but the poor’s innocent toward their exploitation by others. The rich who could be the person to adjust this problem by expressing worse economy environment to the government; or help the poor to against the exploitation by striving more right for the poor. However, to be the person who also receive number of fortune in this unfair economy environment; seldom would them speak for the poor. The power groups and the rich the same, pursue the property to satisfy their psychological poverty the cause from huge desire for fortune, right and space. All of us will have a goal in our life, and also we cannot identify what kind of goal is better or what kind of life destination is worse. To find the value of the life is a way to decrease to psychological poverty, because that means our psychology can find the destination and get confidence from it. Human being is poor because of their psychological poverty, but also, they can rich their mind by trying to decrease their psychological poverty. Therefore, the poor become the victims of unbalanced right in the society, and also, the victims of psychological poverty.
-------------------------------------------------------------Work Cited
YouTube (February 5, 2000). Mhuammed Yuns- Grameen Bank. Retrieved November 17, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPk2gRuIdj0
Russell Sage Foundation(July 24, 2008). Psychology of Poverty: Why Poor People Buy Lottery Ticket. Retrieved November 17, 2011, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.science20.com/news_releases/psychology_of_poverty_why_poor_people_buy_lottery_tickets
YouTube (August 14, 2009). Zwick, E (2006). Movie: Blood Diamond. Retrieved December 15, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2uXlxNZCs4&feature=player_embedded
邱君萍 許文男(November 28, 2011). 綠文宣蕉價低三倍 蕉農被害慘. Retrieved December 15, 2011, from World Wilde Web:
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