Blog 2 - Post 1 entry 1, Chapter 3: Two Levels of Understanding Poverty

Two Levels of Understanding Poverty



This is the third component that Mr. Rank discusses of understanding impoverishment he states, that who is more likely to identify the impact of human capital (money) or we can look at why poverty occursby looking at the structural failings.   He uses his musical chair analogy of basically who gets the chair and who doesn't and that the losers will be those in an unfavorable position when the music stops, those who are less agile, slower and so on.   I f we focus on the game of musical chairs  of life the causes of poverty change from the lack of skills or education to the fact that the economy produces unemployment.

Rank, suggests that there are two ways of understanding individual vulnerability to poverty.   Paths A and B deal with the question of who is at risk of poverty in America, while paths C and D focus on the question of why poverty exists in America.   The bulk of empirical research pertaing to poverty in America focuses on path A.   Path B suggests that several background characteristics determine who's lacking in human capital.    Those lacking are more likely to have their acquisition of human capital truncated.   Paths A and B therefore explain who in America faces the greatest risk of experiencing poverty during their lives.   Rank states, that figure 3.1 is an incomplete and misleading account.   C and D   explains why so many  Americans  are at an elevated risk of poverty.   In summary,  poverty is viewed as failing at the structural level.