In 2014, 14.8 percent of Americans lived in poverty (“Hunger”). This is a significant number that cannot be ignored. With this said, it is not surprising due to America’s economy, government, and selfish citizens. As a result, these 46.7 million struggling individuals are mentally unstable, kept from improving their social status, and stuck in an uncomfortable living situation. Until the causes are addressed, the effects will continue. America’s democratic republic naturally creates a separation of classes. By allowing citizens to forge their own path, they receive different paychecks. Because it is part of this country’s freedom, it cannot be changed. As a result, it is necessary for the government and wealthy citizens to support those suffering …show more content…
This does not mean that these citizens were struggling, but it means that they had absolutely no source of income. With the government nor wealthy individuals supporting them, citizens in this situation will slowly die from a lack of necessities. In addition to the unemployed, many citizens have jobs that do not supply enough money to live off of. In Missouri, for instance, individuals with a full time minimum wage job earn $7.50 per hour (“Living”). This is a problem, considering that the required hourly wage to live is $9.64 for a single adult working full time (“Living”). When a family is added into the equation, it is disheartening. More jobs must be created to lower the amount of citizens who …show more content…
First of all, students in this situation have additional family responsibilities, because their parents generally work more hours. This means that they might have to cook, clean, and take care of their siblings, which takes away from their school work. In turn, their opportunity to raise their ACT score or maintain a college-worthy GPA is decreased. In addition to family responsibilities, they might have to work to support themselves. Without a job, they might starve, which further takes away from their academics. Lastly, students are kept from being a part of extracurricular activities for the same reasons they are kept from academics. This is a significant factor in a college application, and although a part-time job does help, colleges look for activities that develop leadership skills. This creates a cycle that causes many generations of poor citizens to remain poor; because of their inability to attend college, they must work minimum wage
The unemployment rate has dramatically increased over the last several months. This increase has created many complications for the American people. Although the United States economy has created over 7 million jobs, there is still a long way to go until the economy is back on track.
While readers may look at the statistics and reasonings, some will immediately entrust the author to provide them with accurate and meaningful information such that they are prepared to prevent the worsening of poverty in America. Reeves recognizes that the Brookings website audience is predominantly a large group of liberal democrats. Their passion to assist those in the lower middle class makes the author 's argument compelling and lends credence to Reeves 's position of separation of the classes. Our author comments, "Efforts to increase redistribution, or loosen licensing laws, or free up housing markets, or reform school admissions can all run into the solid wall of rational, self-interested upper middle-class resistance." The idea that the upper middle class can somehow impact the wellbeing of those less affluent can be very intimidating for many. The fear of separation amongst the classes may move his readers to action, and quite possibly stop the widening between the classes.
Edin and Skinner begin their article by explaining to their readers that income inequality is a prevalent and complex problem in America today. The authors also point out that although President Obama and several other Democrats have proposed legislative approaches, such as raising the minimum wage and taxing the rich, to combat this problem, it will take a long time for these proposals to become law due to the Republican-dominated Congress. Because the authors believe these laws will take too long to be put into
A major social problem in America today is its inequality of the distribution of income. "Income inequality refers to the gap between the rich and the poor. The United States has the most unequal income distribution in the industrialized world, and it is growing at a faster rate than any other industrialized country" (Eitzen & Leedham, pg. 37). The main reason as to why income is distributed so unequally is because of the gap between social classes.
There are 50 million people who live in poverty in the U.S, today. There are more than 30 million children growing up in bad conditions. Due to lack of money some people are unable to afford food and shelter which result in homelessness. On a night in January 2014, 578,424 people were experiencing homelessness. These people were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter because they couldn’t afford to pay for a place to stay and had no family that would let them stay over. Included in the 578,424 homeless people were war veterans, people with mental health issues, people whose families have thrown them out, and more. During the winter, many homeless people freeze to death because they don’t have the appropriate clothing for the low temperature. Today there are about 795 million people out of the 7.3 billion people in the world, suffering from chronic malnourishment. Over a thousand people go through their day without eating including men, women, and children. These people are too poor to afford food for themselves or their families; although there are food stamps and other services to provide to help these families, some don’t want to accept this help because they believe it is their job to provide for their
In America after World War two, citizens were split between classes based on their economic stability. Americans today still look at these classes and defines these people as better off or worse off than the next person. Why do people judge others for having less money than them? Why do employers send lower class citizen away when they need the money the most? These are some question that citizens in the lower or lower middle class have when they are looking at their position in America’s economic system. Research shows that lower class citizens face more hardships to better their lives than those who are more stable.
Working class Americans once experienced many benefits, but over the past few decades these have mostly evaporated, and the remaining benefits are disappearing at a rapid pace. Many individuals are often persuaded with false information and misdirection from charismatic figures without any thought to investigate any of the details for themselves. However, this is just a marvelous performance, confusing the issues of why the middle class and poor are suffering so severely in today’s economy. In reality, the primary cause is due to the economic elite, the wealthiest of Americans, who have strategically placed themselves as the ruling class (Barlett & Steele, 2012). They have proceeded to erect discriminatory borders in order to separate themselves from the others they discard.
The somewhat controversial issue of wealth disparity is, why there is such a huge economic disparity in the class system and how can it be dealt with. The reality of redundantly confirming the vivid difference among classes with regards to economic wealth would be an understatement. First and foremost, the US is a combination of
For many low-income families, the set benefits offered by the government do not provide a feasible escape from poverty, because they fail to
America conceits itself on being one of the greatest positive fairly ruled districts. Income inequality not only troubles us financially, but disturbs our intellectual and bodily comfort; so, it is significant to categorize the true conducts to governor capital delivery between individuals. The knowledge of the American vision is all people have equivalent public rights and an open administration. Yet, the use of fairness is actuality endangered by growing inequality in the United States. “The dominant view holds that economic development and modernization are the key to the continued growth of democracy” (Snider and Faris 2001; United Nations, 2011). The pay openings have not just been rising among the unfortunate and the rest of the world but amid the rich and the middle and occupied seminar.
Poverty is a serious phenomenon that has been widespread all over the world. Although, many charitable organizations like CARE, Action Against Hunger (AAH) or Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) have operated with a highest enthusiasm to help the indigent, the amount of those have still been increasing significantly in recent years. According to the survey of the United States Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans in poverty rose from 12.2 to 15.9 percent and the proportion skyrocketed from 33.3 million to 48.8 million between 2000 and 2012 (Bishaw, 2013). The indigent are very poor people, including the disabled, beggars, homeless people who live in slums with lacking of insurance, being unemployed and earning underpaid salaries, about
There’s no denying that there are social classes in America. At the top there are the billionaires, and residing at the bottom are those that don’t have a roof over their head. The cause of this huge difference in living is due to income inequality. The gap between the levels is only getting worse. In fact, because of this the middle class is beginning to disappear. However, we can prevent this from happening by placing a strong focus on education, creating more jobs for Americans, and increasing the federal minimum wage.
USDA (2014) study estimated that 48.1 million people, including 32.8 million adults and 15.3 million children in the United States lived in households that struggle to afford an adequate diet. The health of individuals affected by food insecurity can become compromised as some rely on less expensive and less healthy food which results in the development of chronic illness including mental illness (Seligman, Laraia, & Kushel, 2009), (Leung, Epel, Willett, Rimm, & Laraia, 2014).
Income inequality has been an ongoing issue that has affects many American citizens for decades. Some Americans are more affected by income inequality than other Americans. This is an unfortunate fact, but there seems to be no easy solution and it seems it is getting worse. American citizens are losing hope in the system, and their voices screaming for change that benefits all, are rarely heard.
Income inequality has been an ongoing issue that affects many American citizens for decades. Some Americans more affected by income inequality than other Americans. This is an unfortunate fact, but there seems to be no easy solution and it seems it’s getting worse. American citizens are losing hope in the system and their voices screaming for change, that benefits all, are rarely heard.