1. In 1967, in his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King

In the article, “What’s So Bad about Being Poor” by Charles Murray, Murray states that “One of the great barriers to a discussion of poverty and social policy in the 1980s is that so few people who talk about poverty have ever been poor”. He discusses how, contrary to present day, in America up until the 1950s those in positions of influence and power included a sizable amount of people who had been raised “dirt-poor”. Murray states that, because of this, many Americans with their lack of exposure to such people, they develop a skewed perspective of what poverty is. On account of this, Murray challenges the reader with several thought experiments which he uses to help the reader come to certain conclusions that convey his message.

Poverty has been a big issue over the past century or so and continues to be a problem to this day in the United States. Due to the Civil War, rural areas and industrial areas were affected by poverty. The poverty of rural sharecroppers in 1877 was different from the poverty of unemployed industrial workers in 1939. Even though both situations were dealing with a form of poverty, both were two completely different situations. There were several major events that happened that caused poverty of rural sharecroppers in 1877. Although there were various events leading up to the poverty of unemployed industrial workers in 1939, poverty in the year of 1877 was just as bad, if not worse, as in the year of 1939.

In Diana George's essay "Changing the Face of Poverty," she explains how the issue of poverty in the United States is misinterpreted. Diana argues that organizations with the primary goal of eradicating global poverty may be the ones contributing to the problem they're fighting against. I can agree with George that Americans have some over simplistic views and stereotypes which then “often fail to overturn cultural commonplaces that represent poverty as an individual problem that can be addressed on an individual basis.” (678) In order to overcome poverty organizations such as Habit need to move past using “the most common understandings of poverty in America." (680)

Different views on poverty altered urban life as well. Those who were better off economically saw poverty as a weakness. They believed the poor were poor because of a lack of work ethic and determination, this theory was known as Social Darwinism. This theory is emphasized by Andrew Carnegie who, in his book Wealth, states that it is “much better great inequality than universal squalor” (Document A). Not only are those his thoughts about poverty, but he also finds it “essential for the future progress of the race” (Document A). This belief was shared by many successful entrepreneurs. There were, however, those who did not share this idea. There were those who believed the poor were poor due to their surroundings and the lack of opportunities they had. Such individuals include Jacob A. Riis. In his book, How the Other Half Lives, Riis says, “If it shall appear that the sufferings and the sins of the ‘other half’, and the evil they breed, are but as just punishment upon the community that gave it no other choice, it will be because that is the truth” (Document H). Riis puts the blame on the community, not on people themselves. This belief is also shared by Jane Addams, who after helping out a German immigrant realized that she didn’t need charity, since she had an “immense capacity”, but the service of the state’s attorney (Document J). These different views on poverty ultimately changed urban life by starting a social reform movement, which will

Martin Luther King Jr dedicated his life fighting to end discrimination against African-American men, women, and children. Martin did not believe in violence at all and would use kindness and love as opposed to violence and hate, this would help set the tone of his iconic movement to end racism. Martin was able to prove that a world without violence can be successful. He would be able to establish equal voting rights between the black and white people, and establish that all nations must treat all people equal no matter their skin color.

From “The Other America,” in Major Problems by Michael Harrington is a document that tells of the poverty present in America that is often skillfully and unintentionally concealed and also speaks of Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty and briefly of how poverty rose during the Reagan administration. After Johnson’s declaration of war on poverty, there was significant change regarding the climate of the social, economic, and political in the America of those times. And while Johnson’s countless social programs helped decrease poverty immensely, it also left a huge number drowning in it still. Later Reagan’s administration would cite George Gilder on the fact that welfare did not reduce poverty but increase it to explain why the levels of poverty rose during the first few months of Reagan’s administration. Democrats and liberals would argue against this and say that poverty

William Graham, an author during the gilded Age, believed that poverty was the best policy; If you get wealth, you will need to support other people, but if you do not get wealth, other people will support you. Graham did not view inequality between the classes as a huge problem, but he rather saw it as a result of the different degrees of success that men have created for

Shipler says multiple times in the book that poverty is not only a material issue, it is also a mental one. A person living in poverty describes poverty as “helplessness,” this helplessness defines their sense of identity. Once a person reaches the poverty level, many feel as if they can never improve and thus they feel as they have become poverty. This identity crisis is only worsened when the government strips the identity of individuals for the sake of statistics. The government can not fix the problem if they do not know all of the facts. The government has a responsibility to protect its people, and as such, government workers need to act with a sense of humanity instead of annoyance. One lady who relied on money from the government to feed her family was denied the money when a paper was sent in late. The woman mailed the letter the next day but was denied the money, when she confronted the worker the reason she had not received her money was because the worker did not check the mail. When the government realizes that these are people and not statistics they will be compelled to be more helpful. “Working at the edge of poverty means working on the coldest side of corporate America.” Most assume that when a person is poor, they do not work hard and so people treat them much worse than any other person. If those in poverty are treated fairly, then their sense of self will be improved and the poverty cycle will be broken. Those in poverty are a key part of the national economy, as they work in the jobs that many refuse to. They work in the factories that produce items to sell, which boost the economy. The personal financial choices that a person makes is also discussed in The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Each choice a person makes could be detrimental to their future. Investing in certain job

The most common assumption about poverty is that it is caused by an individual's own choices or behavior. In this case an individual is blamed, and we assume the only person who can prevent a future in poverty, is the person in the situation. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Bob Ewell makes awful choices as an individual. This is what causes the Ewells to be extremely poor. Rather than providing for his family, ¨he spends

Martin Luther King starts by addressing the war that was happening in vietnam and he uses cause and effect of the war happening. One example he gave was the poverty program. A program that was meant to help the poor “both black and white”, he also went on to say “I knew that america would never invest the necessary funds or energy in rehabilitation of its poor so long as … vietnam continued”.

If I was a politician already in office or a businessman during that time, I would likely side with the argument that poverty was the poor’s own fault. I would only do this probably out of greed because the politicians and businessmen of that time were not poor and I would feel no need to become even slightly poorer to help others in the nation feed their families. One of Sumner’s main points as to why there should be a lower class in the country is the constitution says that everyone has the right to the pursuit of happiness but that does not mean that everyone should automatically possess happiness without the proper work behind it. Henry George counters this by stating that it is a crime for the business men to inflict such poor conditions upon society as a whole. However, Sumner’s article is not extremely effective in presenting their argument, throughout the writing they use a bit of name calling and are a bit disrespectful to the poor implying that they are lazy and good for nothing, with that being the reason they are poor in the first

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King Jr. In 1967, King separated himself from the world and hid from the Civil Rights Movement. King writes out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America’s future. As part of this plan he mentions what would come with this dream and that’s better jobs, houses, higher incomes, and better education. Most importantly King speaks out against the war. Kings speech titled “Beyond Vietnam”. Which explains the relationship of the Civil Rights and peace movement. King asked that all bombing stop in North and South Vietnam be an agreement and remove all troops and give the people of slavery a decision on reaching agreements. King believed that the Vietnam War took money and attention from programs that helped the poor. Furthermore, King said “the war was doing far more devastating the hopes of the poor at home we were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem (Martin Luther King, Jr speaks out against the war, ‘1967)

Martin Luther King Jr. sought to improve the jobs and living conditions of the poor (Bausum, 42). King saw the “Poor Peoples Campaign” as a fight for human rights (Bausum, 42). King launched the “Poor People’s Campaign” for economic equality on December 4, 1967 (Lakeside). This program was an effort to gather as many black and white poor people in Washington in demand of a response from America. King had very little support from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff to aid the “Poor People’s Campaign”(Bausum, 42). The campaign was difficult, considering the government’s frail participation to help end poverty. King realized the diverse population would cause another problem to continue the “Poor Peoples Campaign”. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the United States was responsible for the poor because of the decision to start the Vietnam War (Bausum, 45). King’s view on the Vietnam War clashed disagreements with government officials. The FBI and Herbert Hoover overstepped the bounds of law and launched POCAM in attempt to abolish

In 1967, Dr. King gave a famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, his first to publicly question the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Johnson’s economists believed that economy would begin to grow by 1980 which would have put an end to income poverty. He had an idea that the employment rate would rise and that training programs and grants for children’s education would become available. Johnson and his economist’s vision did not happen by 1980 and people were beginning to wonder what went wrong. There were many people that argued about how money was not the cure for poverty and that they should focus more on the poor’s behaviors