LIVED EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN POOR

Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks

the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.
Poverty means that the income level from employment is so low that basic
human needs can't be met. Poverty in the Philippines has been one of the
most controversial and timeless issue in the country. In one of the few
studies on poverty in the Philippines, many low-income Filipinos expressed
feelings of hopelessness or despair; disappointment with the economic,
social, and political conditions in the country; but little sense of resignation
or laziness (Guerrero, 1973). Findings showed that people who remained
poor have few aspirations for themselves but hold high hopes for their
children’s futures and educational attainment. Their socio- psychological
traits and attitudes are a sense of life being negative; dissatisfaction due to
the inconsistency between expectation and attainment; high work
orientation; reliance on chance or luck; the magical role of education; being
half-optimistic and half-hopeless; and disappointment with social,
economic, and political conditions in the Philippines. And there are also
people who were born poor who strived and succeeded in life, and a lot of
them had become the country’s successful Filipinos. We chose this topic
because they serve as an inspiration for us all to strive and not to just give
up on life.

The study aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the causes why they were born poor?

2. How do they cope with the fact of being born poor?
3. What are the cultural characteristics of poverty?