"The mother of revolution and crime is poverty"(Aristotle) Do you agree?
With globalisation as the main focus of many economies today, the world as a whole can expect to enjoy a better standard of living with higher salaries. However, that is not the case. Poverty still exists among the rich despite the fact that more and more people are beginning the reap the benefits of globalisation. Poverty is the stage or condition in which one lacks a socially acceptable amount of money or material possession and it does not only exists in the developing countries such as Laos and South Africa but also in more developed countries such as the United States and Singapore.
Aristotle once said that "the mother of revolution and crime is poverty", meaning that poverty itself can lead to revolution and crime. Revolution is a movement to change a current socioeconomic situation or political organisation while crime is the commiting of an action that is illegal under the legislation system, in which offenders face penalties.
Today, what Aristotle said can be considered true to certain extent. Class divide has become a prominent issue with the effect of globalisation. The income disparity between the rich and the poor contributes to this widening class divide. In Singapore, blue collar job workers like cleaners earn three digits salary while other jobs such as office workers earn at least thrice their amount. With the increased cost for living, what blue collar job workers are earning are just sufficient for survival. They have no additional money to spend on luxuries or entertainment whereas majority of the population can afford to. Such unfairness would certainly raise discontentment among the poor and when they as a group decides to change their fate, it may result in a revolution. When an individual is unable to control him or herself, it may also lead to the commiting of crimes when the person is driven to desperation. Poverty itself can be regarded as a deprivation from luxuries, which according to a BBC article "Focus call on poverty crime link" in January 2005, may lead to crime. While the above are negative perpectives of how poverty could lead to revolution and crime, it may not always be pessimistic. The "Pledge to eliminate child poverty" article in March 1999 states that Britain is starting a revolution in an attempt for people to appreciate the welfare state and at the same time solve the problems regarding child poverty. This shows that revolution need not always be seen from a negative perspective and that it may be an attempt to tackle the main issue of poverty.
However, there are different viewpoints to Aristotle's quote as well. What he said may be reversed. Revolution, on the other hand, may lead to poverty as well. According to the article "The market: winners and losers" from BBC news in November 2003, two-third of China have an average income of less than a dollar a day. This was due to the industrial revolution which took place 200 years ago, thus showing how poverty may be a consequence of revolution instead. Revolution may lead to economic progression, raising people's standard of living. However, it also have the effect of widening class divide because not everyone can be guaranteed a part of the revolution success. There may also be other reasons as to what causes crimes and revolution. For instance, crime can also be due to prejudice, greed, personal pleasure and many other reasons. In the case of personal pleasure, a barman was murdered by a gang who was on a brutal spree of violence in London according to the article "Man killed in 'night of violence'" in October 2005. The recent Thai coup in 2006 also demostrated how revolution can occur due to political discontentment when the administrative reform group decided to force Thaksin to resign from his position. Hence, these show how other reasons may attribute to revolution and crimes.
In conclusion, while what Aristotle said may be true that poverty does lead to crimes and revolutions, there are also other cases whereby other reasons such as discontentment contribute to crime and revolution. Moreover, the reverse may also occur and hence, it is not definite to totally agree with Aristotle's quote.
