Question by Blondieee :D: What was life like for the poor in cities?
I have a social studies project and I need to know: What was life like for the poor in cities (Where did they live, what did they do for jobs, and what were the jobs like?)

Best answer:

Answer by Latin Kid
Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to Mollie Orshansky who developed the poverty measurements used by the U.S. government, “to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted.”[1] Ongoing debates over causes, effects and best ways to measure poverty, directly influence the design and implementation of poverty-reduction programs and are therefore relevant to the fields of public administration and international development.

Although poverty is mainly considered to be undesirable due to the pain and suffering it may cause, in certain spiritual contexts “voluntary poverty,” involving the renunciation of material goods, is seen by some as virtuous.

Poverty may affect individuals or groups, and is not confined to the developing nations. Poverty in developed countries is manifest in a set of social problems including homelessness and the persistence of “ghetto” housing clusters.[2]

The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a “poverty cycle” operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.

Those living in poverty and lacking access to essential health services, suffering hunger or even starvation,[88] experience mental and physical health problems which make it harder for them to improve their situation.[89] One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990.[90] Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. Those living in poverty often suffer from hunger.[91] 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.[92] Poverty increases the risk of homelessness.[93] There are over 100 million street children worldwide.[94] Increased risk of drug abuse may also be associated with poverty.[95]

Diseases of poverty reflect the dynamic relationship between poverty and poor health; while such infectious diseases result directly from poverty, they also perpetuate and deepen impoverishment by sapping personal and national health and financial resources. For example, malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations, and by killing tens of millions in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS alone threatens “the economies, social structures, and political stability of entire societies”.[96][97]

Those living in poverty in the developed world may suffer social isolation. Rates of suicide may increase in conditions of poverty. Death of a breadwinner may decrease a household’s resilience to poverty conditions and cause a dramatic worsening in their situation. Low income levels and poor employment opportunities for adults in turn create the conditions where households can depend on the income of child members. An estimated 218 million children aged 5 to 17 are in child labor worldwide, excluding child domestic labor.[98] Lacking viable employment opportunities those living in poverty may also engage in the informal economy, or in criminal activity, both of which may on a larger scale discourage investment in the economy, further perpetuating conditions of poverty.

Unfortunately, there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins in primary school for some less fortunate children. These children are at a higher risk than other children for retention in their grade, special placements during the school’s hours and even not completing their high school education. [99] There are indeed many explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, the risk factors are similar to excuses such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage pregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents. [99]

Intellectual competence is key to the educational attainment. Brighter people, whether old or young, tend to have more economic power, go further in their education, and often lead much healthier, much more prestigious lives. So children with high abilities and low income must be supported and research should identify methods for discovering and reaching these young students. [99] Early childhood education and assisted learning in the home are highly considered as methods that are supported by plenty of careful study, observation and research. [99]

In 1972, came the Carolina Abecedarian Project at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center of the University of North Carolina. The progra

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