The poor, in contrast, cannot fulfill their wishes or develop their capacities. Low self-confidence both results from poverty and increases powerlessness and isolation from opportunity. A group of young men in Bower Bank, Jamaica, rank low self-confidence as the second biggest impact of poverty. Not only are we not educated but we don't have a street-wise education. Quality of interactions with institutions Poor people's powerlessness and voicelessness are most clearly evident in the quality of their interactions with the formal and informal institutions on which they depend for their survival.
Institutions mediate their access to resources and opportunities.
But the individuals with whom they must interact in the private sector, state, and, to a much lesser extent, civil society are often exclusionary, rude, and uncaring, as well as corrupt and exploitative. Poor people end up depending on their own informal networks of kin and friends for survival and solace. Most poor people, particularly women, survive in the informal sector through a patchwork of low-paying, temporary, seasonal, and, often, backbreaking jobs with little security and no guarantee of payment. Whether in Russia or Bolivia or India, poor people say that they often do not get paid when they complete a job and have no recourse to justice. In Russia, a man cries that he has been paid in mayonnaise and vodka when what he needs is cash to buy medicines for his sick daughter.