Poverty is a problem throughout both developing countries and the developed world. No global citizen has yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question of how to eliminate worldwide poverty. However, much research has been conducted regarding the various effects and variables that affect those around the world who live below the poverty. Many of the major differences between those individuals who live in poverty is found in their location. Those who live in rural areas have far different experiences compared to those who live in urban areas regarding their poverty.
By examining a few aspects of poverty, both in an urban and rural setting, the differences in the two are exposed. One of the greatest differences exists in the form of education. People living in an urban area often have the opportunity to acquire an education which exceeds that available to those in rural areas. Even though inner-city schools, where many poor students attend school, are inadequately funded, they do offer an alternative to the same lifestyle of those who cannot receive an education. Inner-city schools are often crowded and have far too many students in proportion to the number of available teachers. However, an education is an essential tool in breaking the cycle of poverty which so many living below the poverty line wish to escape.
In rural areas, an education is a luxury which few, if any, people living below the poverty line have the opportunity to acquire. An education is, just as it is in urban areas, essential to escaping the cycle of poverty. However, in rural areas there are few to no schools. If there are schools they are normally found in one room and students from grades one to twelve are taught in the same classroom. These teachers are often unable to teach more than the basics of an education to even the brightest students. Because an education is so unavailable in rural areas, the literacy rates in these areas are seldom above 30%. This inability to receive an education makes it near to impossible for those living below the poverty line to move above their current station in life.
Another such issue which differs between the two geographical locations is unemployment. In rural areas, there may be options in where a poor individual chooses to take employment. These places may be jobs which at least permit them to feed their families, and few even earn enough to cover rent in public housing. The problem with unemployment is that when jobs open up in urban areas, those living in rural areas flock to the city. Those who already inhabit the city are then forced to work for low wages because there are many available employees to take their jobs if they perform unsatisfactorily. Furthermore, those people who flock to the city for these employment opportunities often become the inhabitants of the public housing and aid created for the urban poor.
Unemployment in rural areas cannot truly even be considered a problem. If an individual loses their job in a rural area, they often must choose to relocate or their family will starve. Job opportunities for those below the poverty line in rural areas are few and far between. These jobs are inadequate to cover the meager costs of living. However, many rural poor are believers that any job is better than no job. For those who cannot find employment in rural areas, the other option is to farm. Yet, if a family has a farm they are often forced into growing illegal drugs on it by drug lords in these developing countries. This issue creates even more problems: often a family is harmed physically and their safety is compromised. Once a family has been captured by the drug lord their hope for escape is slim. The problem of unemployment is, in reality, much greater in rural areas than the uneducated actually comprehend.
Unemployment and education are two major problems which face the poor of developing and developed countries. Though many political scientists have studied their effects on countries, and their effect on the taxpayer, the answer is still the same: no one has an answer. No individual has created a plan which sufficiently diminishes the effect of poverty for the nearly one billion people in this world who live below their respective poverty line.