Today, despite strong labor markets with record low unemployment rates, there are millions of Americans who work but remain poor. In 2009,.which is the most recent data available, accordint to the Working Poor Families Project (a privately funded effort aimed at improving economic security for low-income families) 10 million low-income working families in the United States an increase of nearly a quarter million from the previous year. Forty-three percent of working families with at least one minority parent were low income, nearly twice the proportion of white working families (22 percent). The number of working poor in the United States is higher than they have ever seen it before and it continues to increase at a staggering pace. I'm going
According to the U.S Bureau of Labor and Statistics, in the United States, it is recorded that roughly 5.4 million women are classified as working poor. Which shows they are considered higher than men, 5.0 million (BLS Reports). Among the large portion of Americans considered the “working poor”, this article breaks down not only into gender but race. It also incuded that those of Hispanic or African American race were more than two times more likely to be considered “working poor”, compared to other races considering the white and Asian populations. In 2013, the “working poor” rates for the African Americans and Hispanics were roughly 13.3, and 12.8 percent (BLS Reports). Also
The society is in such a way that it falls into categories of people who belong to different social classes and this creates a difference in the way individuals lead their lifestyle, and in the way individuals interact with each other. The working poor refer to a social group which develops as a result of the social inequalities which exist in the society. The population comprises of individuals who put a lot of effort in their activities but still fail to witness growth and development in their socio-economic being. It is normally wrong to categorize such persons as being lazy, and instead, one may argue that nature dictates the fate of these beings.
Among the 13.4 million low-income families with children, 22 percent are African Americans (HHS, 2015). The average median household income for an African American family was $36, 515 in 2015, which was $24, 879 less than a non-Hispanic family’s income (HHS, 2015). The data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicated that there was 25.4 percent African Americans living below the poverty level, two times more than that of non-Hispanic Caucasians (HHS, 2015). A direct cause of poverty among African Americans is unemployment. By 2015, the unemployment rate for African Americans was 11.4 percent, which was twice than that of non-Hispanic Caucasians (HHS,
In the U.S., the primary source of income comes from jobs. However, people are unable to find jobs because businesses are outsourcing unskilled labor to developing countries since workers there are willing to be paid less than the average American worker. This creates problems for people who are trying to look for jobs because many lack the skills to function in a job that requires skill and will remain jobless until they find unskilled labor jobs. Since the Recession, working class families who had lost their jobs are struggling to survive due to the little job availability (Heritage Foundation, 2011). Because the majority of working class families are suffering from prolonged
It is an undeniable fact there exists a growing poverty epidemic within American society that needs to be addressed. According to a 2012 report by the Cato Institute the United States government spends nearly one-trillion dollars every year to combat severe financial need through a total of 126 separate welfare programs. While this value by itself seems significantly large, perhaps to an even excessive extent, in reality it had little effect on the American poverty level, never al allowing it to drop below 10.5%. Even with these massive government expenditures aimed at elevating quality of life, for many households an escape from their low-income bracket is still vastly unattainable. Current statistics show that more than 40% of individuals born into the bottom quintile will remain there, failing to escape into a life of financial stability. Despite immense funding, in its existing state of organization, the system of aid currently offered by the American government to lower income household fails to effectively alleviate the living conditions of the impoverished due to its negligence towards payday loans and the other intangible costs of poverty, its temporary and ineffective solutions to fight hunger, and most significantly, its insufficient reliance on an unreliable and inconsistent enforcement from state jurisdictions.
Millions of Americans are affected by poverty every day, it does not spare anyone of a certain race, age, or gender. As children go hungry and the homeless become invisible, the 85 percent of wealthy Americans go on believing poverty does not exist. We live in a “culture of poverty” where there are many Americans that deny the fact that the country is in a state of despair, the only likely way out is to change how the government assists the deprived and to educate the unknowing. Policy makers have the ability to implement new initiatives that would decrease if not eliminate the underclass within America. By implementing new policies such as more flexible jobs as well as aiding with savings, this could entice the underclass to build wealth and instill a sense of hope and fortune, something the poor have not felt for years.
In truth, there are millions who still live in a poor household and this is even when there is at least one occupant that is in a full time job, these people are still in poverty because wages are not keeping up with the rate of infliction. In recent years the number of household that are working and that are still in poverty has actually increased. Although in recent years the number of households that have no one working in them and that were in poverty has declined, so it can be seen that in some cases work is not the route out of poverty. Buck, (2008)
Poverty in the United States is a big concern that the nation face all together. Poverty is the main reasons why people are homeless, do not have enough food to eat, cannot get the medical help needed, and why there are so many crimes throughout the world. The main focus is poverty in the United States and how as a nation the citizens came together to help one another out. RONALD REAGAN famously said, “We fought a war on poverty and poverty won.” With 46 million Americans — 15 percent of the population — now counted as poor, it’s tempting to think he may have been right (Edelman Para 1). Poverty effects each and every one of our citizens just because fixing poverty requires money, millions and millions of dollars must come from someone. That money comes from taxpayers that works hard for their money whether it is minimum wage, high wage employees, or even property owners. Throughout history, one of the solution of poverty in the United States is providing free aid to the general public who qualifies or meet certain standards of being poor and in need. It started long ago when poverty was born, poverty was born in the depression era where the population of the people was jobless, homeless, and left to steal from the fortunate just to survive. Although Welfare has changed significantly from providing aid to single mothers with dependents and war veterans’, it is still a source of income that keeps people from suffering financially alone. Unemployment benefits, welfare, and
Poverty, as discussed in my Principles of Sociology class (SOC 202), has been a debated phenomenon for years; it is hard to tell how it began. No one can pinpoint the cause of poverty, but it can continue for generations without the proper guidance of how to get out of it. In his excerpt, Johnson (2014) says that “poverty exists because the economic system is organized in ways that encourage the accumulation of wealth at one end and creates conditions of scarcity that make poverty inevitable at the other.” Public and Private Families: A Textbook suggests that in 2010, 15.1 percent of Americans lived in households with incomes below the federal poverty line (Cherlin 2013). To go deeper into this statistic, the Census Bureau says that African Americans nearly doubled this rate at 27.4 percent (United States Bureau of the Census 2010). There are many causes as to why African Americans may fall and remain below the average American percentage of poverty, one specifically being discrimination within the economy. From previous knowledge and accounts from peers, I have heard
In modern America poverty is still prevalent. People feel that a reason is for this is because people plainly don’t want to work. Others want to work, but simply can’t find a job. This is impart due to empty promises given to us by our President’s. (whitehouse.gov) Certain cities have been heavily impacted such as Compton, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Harlem, New
The declination of poverty in America will bring our great nation one step closer to perfection. But achieving this perfection will by no means be a simple task. To achieve this dream, the American Dream, we need to come together as a nation and help the impoverished. To do this, we must improve the welfare system, create new jobs, and not allow this to interfere with our everyday lives. If we can accomplish this tremendous task, then we can improve American society as a
Some people think that it is not necessary to get low-income people on the entire
For example, in the article named “80 percent of U.S adults face near-poverty, unemployment, survey finds” of CBS news, a woman named Irene Salyers said “If you do try to go apply for a job, they 're not hiring people, and they 're not paying that much to even go to work”. This is really showing the fact of working poor people have less opportunities in finding a job that lead them to unemployment. Unskilled and low-skilled workers are always the suspect of excretion from enterprises, this is also the way that push working poor people have jobless. The next issue of low working people is that minimum wage, although they have a job. Most of the Americans have loans from the government while they attended in college and university. The fact is that they need to pay for the loans even if they don’t want in debts. Some people will work during attending in school to pay off the loans, because of the lack of studying-time during working, these people will drop out school easily. No more knowledge, no more skill, these people become low- skills that make them have minimum wages if they are hired. When people have minimum wages, they can’t afford to high life in the USA, they can’t support enough for their families. This is serious problems of low-income families, so there is
Households are not captivating as much as they need for their respective sustenance of needs. In Rolph’s (2012) summary article outlining wages versus prices, and he claims the economy supposedly gained 163,000 jobs in July 2012, and for those Americans lucky enough to have work, it may not be enough. Incomes have risen over time from the 1970’s, but not at the same rate that the Consumer Price Index has. As reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2014 in Poverty USA (2014), 47 million people lived in poverty, which means the poverty rate for 2014 was 15%. The year before the 2008 recession, poverty rate had an increase of 2.3% by 2014 (Poverty USA, 2014). As many Americans fluctuate around the poverty line during several recessions over the
Due to increasing income inequality and the financialization of the American economy, our nation’s continued economic growth is no longer leading to falling poverty rates. In fact, most Americans are working harder for longer hours with less wealth to show for it. This economic imbalance is important because it is the driving force behind the