Role of Education in Ending Extreme Poverty: Taking a Global Lead
Global Societal Problem, Argument and Solution
[WLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Prepare: Prior to beginning work on this assignment, please review this Sample Final Paper GEN499 downloadfor additional guidance on the expectations of this assignment.
The topic of your essay needs to be a global societal problem from the following list:
Climate change
Pollution
Religious conflict and violence
Rise of artificial intelligence
Lack of education
Unemployment and lack of economic opportunity
Government accountability and corruption
Food and water security
International drug trafficking
Poverty and income inequality
Reflect: Based on the topic that you have chosen, you will need to use critical thinking skills to thoroughly understand how this topic can be a global societal problem and determine some logical solutions to the problem.
Write: This Final Paper, an argumentative essay, will present research relating the critical thinker to the modern, globalized world. In this assignment, you need to address the items below in separate sections with new headings for each.
In your paper,
Identify the global societal problem within the introductory paragraph.
Conclude with a thesis statement that states your proposed solutions to the problem. (For guidance on how to construct a good introduction paragraph, please review the Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) from the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center (Links to an external site.).)
Describe background information on how that problem developed or came into existence.
Show why this is a societal problem.
Provide perspectives from multiple disciplines or populations so that you fully represent what different parts of society have to say about this issue.
Construct an argument supporting your proposed solutions, considering multiple disciplines or populations so that your solution shows that multiple parts of society will benefit from this solution.
Provide evidence from multiple scholarly sources as evidence that your proposed solution is viable.
Interpret statistical data from at least three peer-reviewed scholarly sources within your argument.
Discuss the validity, reliability, and any biases.
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of these sources, pointing out limitations of current research and attempting to indicate areas for future research. (You may even use visual representations such as graphs or charts to explain statistics from sources.)
Evaluate the ethical outcomes that result from your solution.
Provide at least one positive ethical outcome as well as at least one negative ethical outcome that could result from your solution.
Explain at least two ethical issues related to each of those outcomes. (It is important to consider all of society.)
Develop a conclusion for the last paragraphs of the essay, starting with rephrasing your thesis statement and then presenting the major points of the topic and how they support your argument. (For guidance on how to write a good conclusion paragraph, please review the Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) from the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center (Links to an external site.).)
The Global Societal Problem, Argument, and Solution Paper
Must be 1,750 to 2,250 words in length (approximately between seven and nine pages; not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style, as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center resources.
Must use at least eight scholarly sources.
Source Document Requirements:
Multimedia sources (such as videos) may be used, but no more than two such sources may be used. If multimedia sources are used, they must be authored and distributed by credible sources, such as universities, law schools, medical schools, or professors, or found in the University of Arizona Global Campus Library.
Government sources may be used, but no more than two such sources may be used. Examples include whitehouse.gov, state.gov, usa.gov, cdc.gov, and so forth. These websites can be used to make a stronger point about your proposed solution within the argument.
Where documents are used for source materials, those must be peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles, and academically published books. Popular media sources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television and radio shows, etc.) must not be used. Materials from advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace, Human Rights Campaign, National Organization for Women, etc.) must not be used.
Sites such as ProCon.org and Wikipedia must not be used.
Religious texts must not be used.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for an assignment. The Integrating Research (Links to an external site.) tutorial will offer further assistance with including supporting information and reasoning.
Must document in APA style any information used from sources, as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.).
Must have no more than 15% quoted material in the body of your essay based on the Turnitin report. References list will be excluded from the Turnitin originality score.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center for specifications.
Good Critical Thinking Tips:
Your paper should include academic sources that explain multiple sides of the issue.
Your interpretations of the evidence should be objective and state the conclusions and theses presented in the evidence clearly and fairly.
Your paper should place the various forms of evidence in relation to one another and demonstrate why one form or perspective is stronger than the other positions that one could take on the issue.
Your paper should point out the limitations of current evidence and attempt to indicate areas for future research.
Writing Tools:
Before you submit your written assignment, you are encouraged to review the The Grammarly Guide: How to Set Up & Use Grammarly (Links to an external site.) tutorial, set up a Grammarly account (if you have not already done so), and use Grammarly to review a rough draft of your assignment. Then carefully review all issues identified by Grammarly and revise your work as needed.
Final Paper: Poverty and Income Inequality
Student’s Name
Institution
Final Paper: Poverty and Income Inequality
Introduction
Poverty and income inequality constitute one of the biggest challenges facing the global community. This challenge affects hundreds of millions of people on the planet, and as a result, a lasting solution is necessary. According to Peer (2020), 689 million people globally live in extreme poverty. That is, they survive on $1.90 or less in a day. Numerous not-for-profit organizations have invested resources in tackling poverty over the years, which has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of people facing the challenge. However, given the high number of people still in poverty, and children, particularly being disproportionally affected, it is clear that there is a long way to go before the problem is finally solved. Income inequality goes hand-in-hand with poverty as the wealth of the richest people on the planet keeps increasing, further widening the income gap. A surprising fact about income inequality is that the top 1% richest people on the planet own a staggering 43.4 % of the world’s wealth (Inequality.org, n.d.). The wellbeing of the world’s population depends on measures tailored toward addressing poverty and income inequality. Global governments should increase investment in education and develop progressive taxation policies to eradicate poverty and income inequality. The ethical outcome associated with this solution is adequate food and nutrition.
Background
Poverty is defined by the United Nations as the lack of access to choices and opportunities (Rahim et al., 2014). Remarkable progress has been made in the world toward advancing economic development and consequently reducing poverty, but there is still a long way to go. With 689 million people still living under extreme poverty, efforts are needed to lift this significant portion of the world population out of the menace. From another perspective, more than 1.3 million people on the planet still live in multidimensional poverty (Washington Post, 2019). This means that they do not have access to housing, health, sanitation, nutrition, education, or water.
A specific population that is disproportionately affected by poverty is children. According to UNICEF (n.d.), about 356 million children on the planet live in extreme poverty. These poor children are twice as likely to die during their childhood compared to wealthier kids (UNICEF, n.d.). It is heartbreaking that while in certain places of the world children can easily access education, nutrition, health cover, and water, in others, these necessities are rare and as a result, the chances of dying young are high. This further demonstrates how unequal the world is and how the problem of poverty exacerbates the inequality problem. In the U.S., 1 in 5 children lives below the federal poverty level (FPL) [Wimer et al., 2016). It is quite surprising that one of the most developed countries of the world still suffers the problem of poverty. It is important to recognize that child poverty means poor health, weak academic performance, and a greater likelihood of becoming poor in adulthood (Smeeding & Thévenot, 2016). These are factors that primarily determine one’s wellbeing. Therefore, the issue of poverty, and in particular, child poverty, needs to be addressed for good.
Poverty reduction is a key focus of the global community as the goal is even included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that seek to end extreme poverty by 2030 (Page & Pande, 2018). As mentioned earlier, there has been great progress made towards reduction of poverty. However, hundreds of millions of people still experience the harsh life realities associated with starvation. The efforts of world organizations such as the United Nations have been immense in the progress towards equality and a poverty-free planet. Nonetheless, the fact that the problem has not yet been fully addressed means that more needs to be done to attain the ultimate goal of a world without poverty.
The psychological perspective can offer further understanding of the problem of poverty and its influence on those experiencing it. According to Molotsky and Handa (2021), because of the focus on immediate consumption, it is unlikely for people living in poverty to save and plan for their futures. The short-sightedness present in these people further compounds the problem of poverty as they cannot devise ways to get themselves out of the problem. As pointed out by Molotsky and Handa (2021), as a result of poverty’s influence on people's psychological status, their economic choices are negatively impacted. Given this understanding, it is easy to see that it is difficult to get out of poverty because of the mental situation it puts one in. This psychological perspective further demonstrates how grave the problem is and the need for solutions that put the problems of poverty and inequality to an end.
Solution
Two key solutions to address global poverty and inequality are an investment in education and tax reform policies. Briscoe (2016) notes that education is one of the most powerful tools for addressing inequality and poverty. A key important fact in this regard is that when a child is denied education, the associated social, economic, and human costs increase exponentially and indirectly causes a decrease in the amount of funding available for education. Therefore, to a great extent, the lack of education experienced by people in poverty further affects their ability to get an education. This means that when children are not educated, an opportunity is missed to get get more people out of poverty through education. One can thus say there is a ripple effect associated with investing in education; that when infrastructures are set up to facilitate the education of children, the knowledge acquired leads to improvement in quality of life and consequently income. According to Paraschiv (2017), acquisition of knowledge and information leads to improvement in the overall quality of life and productivity. With high productivity and income, there is an increase in the amount of funding available to give others opportunities for education. Paraschiv (2017) demonstrates how public investment in China and India diminished rural underdevelopment as well as regional disparity while at the same time improving the rates of production. With the problem of poverty and inequality being suffered majorly by people living in developing countries of the world, improved investment in education infrastructure and policies can go a long way in reducing poverty. Briscoe (2016) cites a UNESCO report which points out that if all the children in developing countries were equipped with basic reading skills, it would result in 174 million people being lifted out of poverty. In addition, a study by Liao et al. (2019) found that a 1% increase in investment in education leads to a 0.14% increase in GDP. Similarly, Hanif and Arshed (2016) found that a 1% increase in secondary education investment led to a 0.36% improvement in GDP. It is important to recognize that GDP is a measure of welfare and economic performance and therefore, a higher figure indicates decreased poverty levels. More investment in education can thus accelerate the reduction of poverty.
Adoption of tax reform policies, specifically progressive taxation policies, can contribute to a great extent to poverty reduction. According to a study by Oishi et al. (2018), an analysis of data in the U.S. from 1962 to 2014 showed that income inequality ...