The Unsettling Costs of Poverty

by SalvationArmy.ca
Categories: Blog
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Money manager Marc Hamel tells us that poverty hurts us in ways we might not think.

  • The poorest of the poor die 21 years earlier than the rich.
  • Someone in the lowest category of income earning will use the health-care system 50 percent more than the average person.
  • If you live in poverty as a child there is a 20 percent chance you will live in poverty as an adult.

Hamel says if we could help this 20 percent with skill training and higher education, the income gain is billions.  And if we increase the wages of low-income earners the benefit to the economy would be billions per year. Remember, Hamel is a money manager.

But all being said, where those most vulnerable are concerned, self-sufficiency and self-respect are vanishing.

Is this not significant argument to tackle poverty?