Niektóre przyczyny ubóstwa i formy polityki przeciwdziałania (na przykładzie Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki Północnej)

Abstract

The article analyzes problems of poverty in the American society classified among affluent societies. Poverty as a social and economic problem can be found everywhere in the world, but in the United States it has special repercussions. The author has made an attempt to answer two questions, which are of primary importance for the analyzed problem: 1) what arc the causes o f poverty? 2) which kind of policy is the most appropriate for elimination of poverty? A starting point or formulating answers to these questions is a definition of the state of poverty. In order to deľme and estimate the number of economically active persons there are needed criteria referring to characteristics o f economic activity o f individuals and their family situation. Both these issues have to be considered simultaneously wishing to grasp comprehensively the essence of the problem. The second important issue emerging in the course of defining unemployment is the concept of sufficient incomes and small earnings. The third problem is connected with the stan lards of poverty. It is a problem of technical nature and it is connected with measuring the size of households as a basis for estimation of incomes. Finally, the fourth problem connected with the identification of poverty are definitions of income and earnings. The main causes of poverty among population forming manpower resources are considered to be the following: 1) shortage of human capital; 2) insufficient demand for labour in the economy; 3) discrimination; and 4) structure of the labour market. The impact of human capital on employment prospects is explained by the theory of marginal productivity. The more human capital can be offered by an individual the bigger will be their marginal productivity in a given production process. Thus, individuals with a small human capital have a low marginal labour productivity and it is most likely that they will be obtaining a low pay or remain jobless. Possessing an appropriate human capital is not a guarantee of getting a satisfying job in itself. Qualifications and skills are attributes of labour supply. Meanwhile, the nature of market demand for labour is equally important. The third group of poverty causes includes derivatives o f discrimination. As a rule, persons belonging to minority and ethnic groups, women, and generations belonging to poor social strata do not have equal opportunities with others on the labour market. Among different hypotheses concerning causes of poverty in an affluent society a special role is played by theories voicing a decay of competition forces on the labour market accompanied by an emergence of mutually separated submarkets called segments. Among alternative policies aimed at counteracting poverty, the most efficient is considered the policy of increasing employment opportunities. In relation to persons encountering employment barriers all the lime, there should be sought solutions based on transfer benefits.