Polarization Of Human Capital: The Cause Of Poverty

. Many people perceive illiteracy and ill health as the important causes of poverty and thus overcoming these conditions may be one of the ways to curb poverty. Human capital is a means of achieving livelihood objectives. It determines people’s personal capabilities and also defines how livelihood assets should be used.
Financial capital: financial or economic capital (credit/debit, cash, savings, economic assets), are important for the attainment of any livelihood strategy. Rural economies are differentiated from urban economies by the sale of most basic produces. One common characteristic of an urban economy is such that food and housing are bought and rented through the market unlike the rural economies. This means that many urban dwellers

The traditional social ties where members of the extended family could ask for support from one another in times of hardships have been weakened by urbanization. The urban way of life coupled with social disintegration and western way of life has increased people’s tendency not to acknowledge relatives outside their nuclear family. Access to social support in this modern day has been decreased by the increasing rate of individualism. Polarization and social stratification where social groups are formed can also be considered as a positive effect of urbanization. The class system that exists in urban areas favors the rich and those whose voices can be heard, this development leads to the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer. Social networks and traditions can be two edged sword and at times can be a source of vulnerability through the obligations that they impose (Farrington et al., 2002). For example, individualism as a product of urbanization narrows the network support to relatives. By this, individuals are able to divert the funds they would have used on family members to investments for themselves. Urbanization doesn’t only destroy the family support system; it also creates new social support systems for people to fall on. Individuals can depend on support

For instance, there exist the central government, the local government, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, social groups, non-governmental organizations. All these groups have the roles they play in different levels to ensure various policies like land tenure system; land use planning, norms and values are adhered to. All these add up to the complexity people have to go through to achieve their livelihood