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Causes Of Poverty In America

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For every seven Americans at least one of them lives below the poverty line. For a family of four the poverty line is roughly $23,300. Adults and children are skipping meals to just make ends meet. In many situations homelessness can be linked to substance abuse, that is of alcohol addictions or drug dependencies. The leading causes of homelessness or poverty in America is a broken relationship, mental illnesses, cannot afford any type of housing, unemployment, criminal history, too much debt, no health care and finally drugs and alcohol. The definition of “ Addiction is as chronic, relapsing of the brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain; they change structure and how it works”. That means addiction is a severe case that should be treated immediately because if not it alters your brain and destroys you, that addiction can lead to a …show more content…

You may wonder how these people can’t pay their bills or buy groceries buy can have drugs or alcohol, it’s because these things can go for extremely low prices that these people keep going back for more. As a nation, what can we do? When over 47,055 people per year die of a drug overdose or when 88,000 people die of alcohol related issues per year? What can we do? Education is key here. As a society we should realize how important it is to educate the youth on problems that are tearing our society apart. Show young adults in high school or preteens in middle school what actually happens to your body if you participate in these activities. We need to reinforce prevention is key. Tell them that once that individual becomes addicted to drugs there life expectancy is about fifteen to twenty years after they start that drug. As well as as someone addicted to alcohol, about twelve years is cut off their

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