Diagnosing Poverty

Since each poor person has a different reason for being poor, the first step of helping the poor is the same as a physician's first step when approaching a patient: watch, listen, and ask questions. Instead of giving advice, or demanding actions, or criticizing, the Good Samaritan has to keep the end goal in mind: to nurture and mentor a person from whatever current state of being, to a higher level of health, physically, emotionally, mentally, and finally, financially. If wealth is a scorecard of who we are (erroneously believed by many), then it is a reflection, an indicator of the health of the individual in other aspects. The error of this belief is in the assumed linearity of the correlation. Instead, the correlation between wealth and the other aspects of a person is not linear, but quite non-linear. Without digressing, suffice it to assert that great wealth does not indicate that a person's other aspects are also great, but a deficiency is wealth is definitely an indication of some deficiency in a person's other aspects, but not necessarily clear which, and to what extent. This is the necessity for "watch, listen, and ask" to determine the deficiencies, and methods to compensate for them.

Watch: for signs or causes of acute poverty (just as addiction or ill health), perpetuating cycles of chronic poverty (such as lack of motivation or education), and variations in marginalized poverty (such as traumatic events or changes in society). More importantly, watch for opportunities to provide an uplifting hand at the right time, rather than at a convenient time for ourselves.

Listen: for the hopes and aspirations, goals and directions that the person most desire. More importantly, listen for the passion that propels the person's motivation, which gives rise to opportunities for change.

Ask: for specific changes that the person most want, in the priority and according to the values that is unique to each individual. Out of these priorities and values come the action plan for change.

Then and only then, after patient understanding of a person's position and history, is the Good Samaritan ready to plan a course of action to help, to alleviate whatever kind of poverty that afflicts the individual.