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Even this definition does not fully describe poverty in Canada. There are people who die daily due to poverty, those who do not have the income adequate for survival. Medical illnesses causing death due to poverty are not uncommon.
What needs to be accomplished in order to get those stricken in poverty to move from below the poverty line to well above it? What needs to be accomplished in order to eliminate the poverty line all together? But first, what steps need to be taken in order to understand why this unjust social issue occurs? Analysis of the The German Ideology by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, more specifically the section Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas, allow one to formulate some possible answers to these questions.
The social issue of poverty is a very important issue that appears not to be well known; yet it is a very important issue for many reasons. A strong country can only become stronger with a majority of its citizens being satisfied with their living conditions. To be able to provide for your family in the ways of food, clothing, and shelter, is to the majority, living well. This prompts pride in the citizen for his country. It is hard to have a strong, prideful nation when 600,000 Canadians lived in poverty in 1981, and jumped to 1.5 million Canadian children, alone, in 1999. .
It has become evident in the last few decades that there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor. While upper-class individuals used to make roughly $94,000 dollars a year, they now make on average $98,000 dollars a year. The lower-classed individual, however, who used to make $20,000 dollars a year, now only makes on average $15,000 dollars a year. Statistics Canada reported that in 1984 the median market income of families with children in the upper-class was 12 times higher than the median market income of families in the lower-class. By 1994, the upper-classed families were enjoying an income that was nearly 24 times higher than that of the lower-classed family.