Poverty in El Salvador

Poverty in El Salvador

    El Salvador is one of the smallest countries in Central America. The

capital of El Salvador is San Salvador. El Salvador’s borders are the

Pacific Ocean, it is between Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador lies

on the Pacific Rim of Fire which makes it prone to earthquakes and

volcanic eruptions. El Salvador has a population of 5,744,113 as or

2009. The total area is 21,040 km2. El Salvador is compared as big as

Massachusetts.

    Currently 48% of the El Salvadorian population live below the

poverty line. El Salvador’s economic history has had both ups and

downs but its poverty has always been high. The only answer to this is

because of the countries violence and instable history. El Salvador

experienced its most economical downturn in the 1980’s. This was

caused because of the armed conflict in the country that took away

70,000 lives of Salvadorians. Although in 1990 the countries income

had increased, but still remained very low. One reason why people are

poor in El Salvador is because of poor income distribution, for

example a man might work from the hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm in

construction to get paid an unfairly amount of four dollars or less a

day. El Salvador’s population is yet still increasing, which makes it

even harder to deal with the lack of resources. Salvadorian families

usually like to live with their extended family so they can help on

another. Most of the working places are provided by American and

European transnational corporations, which build factories in El

Salvador and hire men to work in extreme conditions for a low

minimum wage. Poverty impacts the society in El Salvador because

people become delinquents and steal from one another because they

don’t have enough money to survive.

    Most children don’t go to school because they have to work for

their family to survive; they usually live on the streets looking for what

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