The subject of poverty can be a difficult and hard to understand. Especially for say, a upper middle class female living a fairly reasonable lifestyle. In fact, that lifestyle could seem rather luxurious compared to others" current standard of living. For many living a similar lifestyle, the mere idea of what it must be like to live in poverty is almost intangible, let alone poverty at a global level. Many people that are well off are often extremely self absorbed and fail to acknowledge the issue of poverty, and fail to be knowledgeable on the many causes and factors of poverty. Although the contributing factors are numerous, and many people believe the main one to be overpopulation, under closer inspection, it isn't as simple as that. After a substantial amount of research, it is easy to see how development is the greater cause of global poverty. .
Throughout the past decades, reaching into the present, poverty and income inequality have increased to massive extents. It is so bad, that ghetto neighborhoods share the same characteristics of old former colonies in the third world (Leon pg. 33). According to Marie Kennedy, professor of community planning at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, "11 million children suffer from hunger or substantial food shortages, and the availability of public housing units has been sharply reduced. The poor are becoming marginalized in society thereby worsening their condition" (Leon pg. 34). During the 1960s, the proportion of persons in poverty more or less steadily declined bottoming out in 1973; from there it began in increase once again. "In 1960 22% of all persons were below the poverty level in 1973 only 11% were; however by 1992, this figure had risen to 15% in terms of absolute numbers, there were nearly 37 million people in poverty in the U.S. in 1992, slight more than in 1960" (Leone pg. 34). Although the number of people living poverty is a major issue here in the U.
