What Is Poverty In America

“More children are living below the poverty line in the United States that in any other developed country.” This statement made by Dan Brown is eye opening to say the least. America, the land of opportunity, is failing its citizens which have had a monstrous effect on American children. Although, many may think our economy has rebounded in recent years which would lead to a decrease in children below the poverty line, the trend of children below the poverty line has been on the rise which is in desperate need to make a turn for the better. There are solutions to this crisis such as creating jobs, paid leave and sick days, and increased education.

Poverty has now become “As American As Apple Pie”, a situation we choose to ignore, and along with it the millions of families who suffer from it. Many have this tendency to believe that they are safe from falling into poverty; unaware of the multiple situations that can cause one to fall into poverty. It makes one wonder what’s keeping them from tipping over, eventually leading to the question, what makes poverty so common, and why is it still around?

Neighborhoods that are organized around work where significant percentage of the adults is working are significantly different from neighborhoods that are jobless, which are neighborhoods that include a significant percentage of people that are not working. Jobless neighborhoods are a lot more dangerous because they create and breed other problems like crime, gang formation, and drug trafficking. (Iceland, 2012) This leads back to the continuing issue with America’s lack of social mobility. It seems that once one person is in poverty, it becomes a vicious cycle and no one is willing to do anything to help. That’s why poverty is passed down to the same races and the same classes because they get stuck in that predicament. There are 50 million Americans without health insurance. (Iceland, 2012) This does not help our problem with poverty. America is a country that deals with problems as they come and never with preventing them. Those that are born into a poor family almost always end up the head of a poor family. This fact has shaped America and has almost made it impossible for those that are born into less fortunate homes.

staggering? Poverty occurs when a person’s need for food, clothing and shelter are not being

No matter the level of determination, it can be much harder for those who were raised in public housing that attend a very poor school to get a job that pays as much as those who were raised in a comfortable home and the ability to attend private school. Though there are many success stories, there are just as many tragic stories where many have to scrape by with a minimum wage job and there is no way that they are able to increase their wealth and the rich remain on top and the poor remain on the bottom. This problem creates a strong bond between income inequality and poverty. Those who do not have the chance to get off of their feet and actually receive a reasonable income, in many cases, can become discouraged and fall into the percentage of poverty stricken Americans.

Public housing is another program that helps to provide a roof over a family’s heads for reduced costs. Rent in some places can be quite high and a family of four may find it hard even to afford a small 3 bedroom house without breaking their pockets.

The current poverty rate in America is 13.5 percent (US Census Bureau). That measures out to roughly 43.1 million Americans. What exactly is poverty? Poverty means not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is so much more than just not having enough money. Poverty is not having access to a doctor or medications you may need, poverty is not having access to a good education. Poverty can be the people who are barely able to pay for food and shelter and simply can’t afford other expenses such as car repairs, field trips with their children and any other extracurricular activity.

Poverty, the state of being extremely poor, exists all over America! There are several different types of poverty, and the causes of poverty. Most people think of poverty as just somebody who is homeless and has no job, somebody who has no money to support the basic needs of life, and wears ragged clothing and lives under a bridge. What people don’t know is there are people living in poverty that have jobs and make money but live so poorly that they are categorized with people that live in absolute poverty.

The scourge of poverty in the United States of America is a tragic story that seems to never end. When President Lyndon B. Johnson fired the first shots in the “War on Poverty” in 1964, the rate declined by a several percentage points in the coming decade. Sadly, whereas in 1964 the percentage of Americans in poverty was approximately 17 percent of the population, the rate still stood at 14.8 percent a full 50 years later in 2014. The ongoing plague of poverty has given rise to a moral value shared almost universally in communities across America: in a society as prosperous and successful as ours, it cannot possibly be considered moral to bear witness to so many poor people who can see little or no way out of their lot in life. Unfortunately,

There is an issue in the United States that a large portion of the population is either choosing to ignore or is simply naïve to the facts. I am a firm believer that poverty is directly associated to education. Research has backed this theory as it shows that 53% of those classified in upper class are college graduates compared to only 15% of whom identify as lower class (Parker, 2012). While there has been a lot of research conducted on who the upper class are and what the lower class need in order to bring themselves out of poverty there has been little to no change in funding practices of public education. If the end state goal of public education is to produce our countries future why are Americans not taking a more aggressive financial

The existing of poverty in the United States is very prominent even in the 21st century. Poverty can affect all race, gender, society, and community. However, if this does occur, no one particular person is exempt from it. There is no labeling on who will be the next individual or family that will reap this unfavorable thing. Unfortunately, poverty in the United States can attack a household at any time. Once this happens, poverty can last for a lifetime or a certain period of time. According to the text, every person has an one-in-five chance of being poor in any given year, but poverty in one year does not predict poverty in the future years (p. 180). The text describes this poverty has short-term or long-term. It depends on their

In today’s economy the need for people with college degrees is at an all-time high. With factories starting to turn to robots, the world now needs people to program the robots. In order for you to program a robot, you need to learn how to code; which can usually can only be done at a four year university. . If every American had some type of education beyond high school, Americans would be better off because more people would have higher paying jobs while poverty levels would go down, more family time, crime rates would decrease, and more jobs would come and stay in the United States.

The U.S. is among the richest countries in the world today, yet millions of people in America still live below the poverty level. The number of Americans living in poverty is increasing day by day as well as the number of children. Poverty in America has become a great threat to children’s wellbeing as they are affected emotionally, socially, and even in their school performance (Wood 720). Poverty in America is mainly caused by lack of jobs. Many people who live in poverty in the United States is due to lack of jobs and getting jobs with minimum wage. Another cause of poverty is due to the rise in the cost of living. Poverty exists in America despite the fact that is among the richest nations in the world.

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives

Other potential causes of poverty are substance abuse, mass incarceration, unemployment, and low minimum wage. For example education, poverty prevents people from attaining proper education. Children who don’t form essential thinking skills before going to school often fall behind other children around their age. Without the ability to attend school, many people go through life illiterate. Then there’s incarcerations. Thus, leading to high unemployment rates in the United States. A high unemployment rate can impede a country from progressing in all aspects, and hinders the country from developing into a strong economic system. An additional prompt is the patterns of substance abuse that are established at an early age that impacts other life decisions affecting poverty, such as whether or not to stay in school. And consequently, children who are born to substance abusing parents are more than likely to be malnutritioned. The meaning of malnutrition is the lack of sufficient nutrients in the body which leads to various internal diseases. Diseases are very common in people living in poverty because they lack resources to maintain a healthy living environment and homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition and immunization.