Compare and contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Compare and contrast - Essay Example But a closer look at what poverty really is may make some people begin to change their minds, and hopefully their responses, to people who can’t manage to simply blend in with the working crowd. Two articles help to make the case regarding poverty from two different viewpoints. One of the prime concerns of poverty has to do with the living conditions one is forced to endure as a result of having few options and no extra cash. Mackey (2007) describes this condition as being one of fear of your fellow neighbors as housewives, attempting to get money orders to pay their rent, found it necessary to develop elaborate schemes in order to keep their money safely tucked away where the robbers on the street between the check cashing place and the post office would not be able to steal it. Another situation she describes is a one in which a woman can’t even get the safety light in the hallway outside her apartment fixed despite the fact that there has been a murder just outside her front door and her children are afraid to come home through the blood that is still soaked into the carpet. The article by Parker (1971) describes similar conditions of being trapped in a house that is falling apart around her and there is nothing she can do about it or to help her children escape from it in any positive way. In both situations, the lack of cash is only a small part of the problem. Larger issues exist in the way that society treats these individuals, either shunting them to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list for repairs and maintenance or forgetting about them altogether and leaving them to rot away with the house and the rest of the garbage. However, while both articles seem to agree that the problem of poverty goes well beyond the issue of available cash on hand, they seem to take a different stance regarding the role of money in making one poverty-stricken. Speaking from the outside looking in, Mackey (2007) indicates that poverty is less a