Essay I Assignment

Guidelines for Essay II
1. Essay I Assignment: Write a review essay of John F. Henry (2007), “Bad” Decisions, Poverty,
and Economic Theory: The Individualist and Social Perspectives in Light of “The American
Myth,” Forum for Social Economics, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 17–27. [Search the Buffalo State
Library to download the article.]

3. Purpose of writing an academic essay: ECO 307 is a writing intensive course. One of
the goals of this course is to develop wring skill as well as critical thinking. Writing a formal,
academic essay requires the following: 1) thorough reading: understanding of the author’s
argument correctly; 2) critical thinking: forming your own thought and making your own
argument in a convincing manner by providing supporting reasons and evidence, and 3) clear
writing style: delivering thought and arguments in an unambiguous manner.
4. Structure:
Academic essays must contain Introduction, Main body, and Conclusion. See the Economics and Finance Department writing guidelines for a review essay here:
http://economics.buffalostate.edu/writing-short-essay
5. Contents:
• A review essay is not a summary of the assigned article. In the introductory
paragraph, state clearly and briefly what you are going to write/argue—that is, raise
your own questions and outline your essay. In the main body of the essay, pick up a few
or several important arguments/issues in the assigned article (refer to suggested questions
below) and then develop your own ideas on those selected issues.
• Keep in mind that “critical thinking” is the most important component of an academic
essay, if critiques are addressed in an appropriate manner. Assertions or personal
feeling without supporting argumentation/evidence should be avoided. Critical
argument does not mean the rejection of others’ argument. Critical thinking is a reasoned
and educated assessment of others’ ideas and arguments.
• Readers (including your professor) are not interested in reading others’ ideas. Readers
expect to see your understanding and argument of others’ ideas you are reviewing. Also
note that there is no “correct” idea in economics. A good argument is a well-articulated
and well-evidenced one.
• Students tend to evaluate academic arguments from a political-ideological viewpoint. Although every person has her/his political/ideological value, an academic argument is not about choosing a side, but about developing ideas. The author, John Henry
tries to make an argument that others have not thought about and that others commonly
misunderstood. John Henry is not judging economic theories from a political viewpoint.
He makes his point from a historical and theoretical perspective.
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6. Consider following questions in writing your essay:
(a) What is the conventional-individualist-neoclassical argument regarding the cause of individual poverty? Do you think this argument is convincing? Why or why not? What could
be done to reduce poverty if the neoclassical argument is true?
(b) Henry argues that an individual’s bad decisions cannot be “the” cause of poverty? What
are the Henry’s reasons for making such an argument? Do you think Henry’s argument is
convincing? Why or why not? Provide some evidence (or your life experience) to support
your response to Henry’s argument.
(c) What’s the most important cause of individual poverty? What’s Henry’s answer to this
question? What’s your answer?
(d) Find some empirical data illustrating poverty in the US. Is the present degree of poverty
in the US normal or socially allowable? Why do we care about others’ poverty? Is there
any way we can eliminate poverty? If elimination is not possible, what can be done?
7. Format
• The paper must be typed in 12 point font size, double-spaced, and minimum 1,000
words including title, footnotes, and references; if the word count is significantly lower
than 1,000 words, some points will be deducted. Although there is no penalty for a longer
essay, I do not recommend more than 1,500 words.
• Insert a page number on each page.
• No need to insert a separate cover page (only name, the date of submission, the title
on top of the first page are necessary).
• Direct quotation should be kept to a minimum. Use your own words.
• Extra spaces/margins between sentences or between paragraphs are unnecessary.
• Check spelling and grammar carefully before submitting the essay. If necessary, get help
from the Writing Center at the Buffalo State Library (see the Center information here:
https://academiccommons.buffalostate.edu/writing-center)
• Note that the Writing Center can help improve structure and grammar, they cannot say
whether your are essay is good or bad. Your instructor evaluates your essay.
8. Citation and Bibliography: Students are free to use any other resources—published books,
journal articles, data, and the like, if they are used in a proper manner. But Wikipedia,
Investopedia, or any similar online site should not be used. All borrowed terms, phrases,
or ideas should be cited in text and included in the reference list. When you cite a reference
in text, provide: Author last name, year of publication, page number—for example, (Jo
2016, p. 327). In the reference list, provide full information of the cited material in the following
format: Author last name, first name, year of publication, title of the article/book, journal title
or publishing house. For example, Jo, Tae-Hee (2016), “What if there are no conventional price
mechanisms?” Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 327–344.
9. No Plagiarism: Any form of plagiarism must be avoided. Otherwise you will get zero for the
essay. To learn about plagiarism, see here: http://economics.buffalostate.edu/plagiarism
10. Evaluation Criteria
– Understanding of the assigned reading material

Answer

Poverty as the situation where a person’s resources mainly their material resources are not sufficient to meet minimum needs including social participation” (JRF, 2013). This definition is based on historic definitions, but also adopts elements from broader definitions of poverty by acknowledging the importance of the social life of the individual and not merely his or her purely material circumstances. Hence, it captures both the absolute and relative characteristics of poverty. There are several types of poverty, absolute poverty, relative poverty, situational poverty, rural poverty and urban poverty.

The individualist approach informs our ideological perspective, permeates thinking on matters of theory and policy, and generally dictates our understanding of perceived reality. Essentially, the individualist perspective so conditions our thinking that it hinders us from seeing the interplay between the individual and society and precludes questions pertaining to that interplay from even being asked. Regardless of one’s position on the validity of neoclassical theory and its variants in other fields of inquiry, it must be agreed that this general view has great influence in determining our positions on important matters including the underlying explanation of poverty. Poverty is mainly caused by making bad decisions in life, some of these decisions can be long term or short term.

A bad decision requires knowledge of consequences prior to the making of the decision. Where I am to engage in theft but not be discovered as the thief, no bad consequences would befall me (save, perhaps, the perturbations produced by a bad conscience. Where I am to be caught in the act, I would be punished, perhaps sent to jail; I clearly would have made a bad decision to steal, but only because the theft was detected. In the first instance, however, the decision was exactly the same, but it would not have been a bad decision as no negative consequence would have occurred.

Lack of good job/ stagnation at your job. This is the reason a lot of people think about. When you don’t have a good job, you aren’t getting a good income. In many countries, traditional jobs like farming are disappearing. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a good example, where most of the population live in rural areas stripped of natural resources from years of colonialism. Half of the DRC live below the poverty line. Even in nations like the United States where many people do have jobs, those jobs aren’t paying enough. According to the Economic Policy Institute, large groups of workers with full-time, year-round employment are still below federal poverty guidelines.

Conflict has a huge impact on poverty. In times of war, everything stops. Productivity suffers as well as a country’s GDP. It’s very difficult to get things going again as foreign businesses and countries won’t want to invest. For families and individuals, war and conflict can make it impossible to stay in one place. It’s also very common for women to become the primary breadwinners, and they deal with many barriers like sexual violence and discrimination.

Whether it’s gender discrimination, racism, or other forms of social injustice, poverty follows. People who are victims of social injustice struggle with getting a good education, the right job opportunities, and access to resources that can lift them out of poverty. The United Nations Social Policy and Development Division identifies “inequalities in income distribution and access to productive resources, basic social services, opportunities” and more as a cause for poverty. Groups like women, religious minorities, and racial minorities are the most vulnerable.

Infrastructure includes roads, bridges, the internet, public transport, and more. When a community or families are isolated, they have to spend a lot of money, time, and energy getting to places. Without good roads, traveling takes forever. Without public transport, it may be next to impossible to get a good job or even to the store. Infrastructure connects people to the services and resources they need to better their financial and life situation, and without it, things don’t get better.

To combat many of the issues we’ve described, the government needs to be involved. However, many governments are either unable or unwilling to serve the poor. This might mean failing to provide (or cutting) social welfare programs, redirecting funds away from those who need it, failing to build good infrastructure, or actively persecuting the population. If a government fails to meet the needs of the poor, the poor will most likely stay that way.

People who are poor are more likely to suffer from bad health, and those with bad health are more likely to be poor. This is because healthcare is often too expensive or inaccessible to those who need it. Without money for medicine and treatment, the poor have to make really tough decisions, and usually essentials like food take priority. People who are sick get sicker, and then they can’t work, which makes the situation even more dire. If people do seek treatment, the cost often ruins their finances. It’s a vicious cycle.

The last root of poverty is simple: stuff costs too much. Even the basics can be too expensive. According to stats from the World Food Programme, the poorest households in the world are spending 60-80% of their incomes on food. Food prices are also very unpredictable in certain areas, so when they rise, the poor have to keep cutting out other essentials. Housing is another essential that is rising. Global house markets have been climbing, according to the International Monetary Fund.

In conclusion, the poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity because “poverty related concerns consume mental resources leaving less for other tasks.”  Could it be that people of low income spend so much mental energy getting through each day balancing life’s necessities against the weight of money problems that they have less capacity to deal with bigger issues that affect their lives issues like work, education and parenting.

Emphasis–any emphasis–on individual decision-making as the underlying cause of poverty not only misses the point, but plays into the political hands of anti-social ideologists. “Bad” decisions cannot be the cause of poverty: poverty is socially and is a consequence of specific economic arrangements. As long as those arrangements are in effect, there is no solution to poverty outside of significant and thoughtful government activity.

REFERENCES

Political economy: An inquiry into the natural grounds of right to vendible property or wealth. Fairfield, CT: Augustus M. Kelley.

Demsetz, H. (1982). Professor Michelman’s unnecessary and futile search for the philosopher’s touchstone. In J. Pennock & J. Chapman (Eds.), Ethics, economics, and the law (NOMOS XXIV) (pp. 41–47). New York: New York University Press.