In the article, “What’s so bad about being poor?” Murray gave good insight on the different views of the word poverty. After reading, I realized that poverty depends on the standard of living and that poverty can be either relative or absolute. If the standard of living in a country is lower, one will be able to get by with a low income. That person may be relatively poor according to a middle class American, but that person is not in absolute poverty. Someone in absolute poverty is someone who needs to think about the basic needs of life on a day to day basis, or someone who is way below the standard of living in the area that he/she lives in.
In Murray’s thought experiment with the poor and rich couple, I’d actually choose to put my child with the rich couple. Sure, the child probably won’t grow up to be a humanitarian or a philanthropist. I’d still rather have my child live life without any difficulties and not have to worry about any sort of basic necessity in life. A lot of my classmates argued that they’d rather have their child live to be a “good person” or to have good values and good morals. I think that this way of thinking is a little too romanticized. It is obviously beneficial to have good values and morals, but I’d rather have my child live comfortably. If my child can live comfortably without working a day, I can sacrifice morals and values. I wouldn’t be able to bear the fact that my child is barely surviving, and living life on a day to day basis.
Overall, I enjoyed this reading. It really put a lot of perspective on what poverty really is. Poverty is not only a classification of wealth but also other factors such as social and political.
In Murray’s thought experiment with the poor and rich couple, I’d actually choose to put my child with the rich couple. Sure, the child probably won’t grow up to be a humanitarian or a philanthropist. I’d still rather have my child live life without any difficulties and not have to worry about any sort of basic necessity in life. A lot of my classmates argued that they’d rather have their child live to be a “good person” or to have good values and good morals. I think that this way of thinking is a little too romanticized. It is obviously beneficial to have good values and morals, but I’d rather have my child live comfortably. If my child can live comfortably without working a day, I can sacrifice morals and values. I wouldn’t be able to bear the fact that my child is barely surviving, and living life on a day to day basis.
Overall, I enjoyed this reading. It really put a lot of perspective on what poverty really is. Poverty is not only a classification of wealth but also other factors such as social and political.
