A Country Measure Ourselves Using Poverty

In the past 25 Years, poverty has been a steady condition in United States history. Not only that, but today there is even more discussion focused on poverty. More and more aid seems to be going to minorities. This segment of the population has retracted to working multiple jobs while taking care of children (Glennerster). Therefore,

The Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If the total income for a family or unrelated individual falls below the relevant poverty threshold, then the family (and every individual in it) or unrelated individual is considered in poverty(“Definitions Poverty”). The United States Census Bureau collects data about the United States and reports it for the general public, these include the poverty levels in the United States. Baker states “The United States stands out for its failure to significantly reduce child poverty over the past few decades and its unusually high child poverty rates relative to other rich countries” (1166). If the United States is one of the top richest countries, why does the child poverty rate continue to increase?Marriage and work have been persistent in debates about poverty, research has shown that both marriage and work have changed drastically in recent

Poverty is not only an individual problem, but a societal problem. Harrell R. Rodgers wrote an article, “Why are People Poor in America?” Rodgers gives two categories of theories that are used when cultural /behavioral or structural/economic. Behavior/culture theorists look at the behavior, culture and values of the poor as the reason for poverty. While structural /ecIn western culture statistics are an excessively used tool in describing social issues. Numbers help explain a situation, but in excesses, can dehumanize a population. A serious social issue that suffers from desensitization is poverty. Poverty, as it is defined by Webster, is the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of supporting; the condition of being poor. The condition of poverty plagues many American families. According to the Census bureau, 15.1 percent of the United States population falls below the poverty threshold. 15.1 percent does not draw the same effect as the actual 46.6 million individuals living in those circumstances. In the United States, poverty has become a growing problem. There are 15 million more people living in poverty today than in the year 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2013). The poverty threshold, developed by Molly Orshansky, is a tool used to help indicate how many Americans are in poverty. According to the census, 46.6 million of America’s total population makes less than the poverty threshold for a family of four. The condition of being

“Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter” (“What is Poverty,” 2016). In the United States, there are 45 million Americans are living in poverty (“45 Million Americans,” 2014). In order to determine if one is living in poverty, the United States Census Bureau has established a poverty line that they then measure, according to the individual’s income and their family size (“Poverty Thresholds,” 2016; “Poorest Cities in America,” 2016). Since the recession in 2008, many states have seen a rise of families living in poverty. Poverty is a vicious cycle and has devastating effects on young children.

It is reported that 18.5 million people are in deep poverty, which means the income of a family is under 50% of their 2016 poverty threshold. It is often said that the efforts to fight Poverty in America has failed. According to surveys, 5% of Americans think that anti-poverty programs have helped decreased poverty, while 47% have said the programs have done nothing. However, in 2014, the U.S census bureau reported that poverty was decreased by 15%.The official poverty rate right now is 12.7%. 8 years after the great recession, the poor families of america begun to emerge from poverty. With the increase of jobs and more safety, poor families were able to climb out of poverty. Census data released today has shown that living in poverty were able to return to pre-recession levels, with poverty declining for all ethnic groups. However, poverty still isn’t disappearing from America. 40.6 million Americans are still living in poverty last year. Historically America has always had a very high poverty rate. It was first rated in 1959 to be 22.4% of people were in poverty. Which is a lot. The poverty rate has been fluctuated throughout the years. In 1973 the poverty rate has decreased to 11.1%, then has increased and decreased to 11 to 15 percent throughout the

The current method to measure poverty fails to capture the whole financial situation of the individual for family seeking assistance. The eligibility guidelines for the benefit is based on outdated household income figures, does not adjust for geographic location nor capture a true reflection of one’s basic need for survival.

Measuring the amount of households currently receiving subsistence allowances and during the second year of an income increase, conduct another measurement of the households receiving government assistance. The reason for my design and method, is because some of the participants may not want to expose themselves to such a research, because they may feel humiliated by their livelihood. The method of the data analysis is to attempt to get at 100 participants from four regions in the country; the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and West Coast. With the collected data from these regions, the questions can be answered though the responses. The responses can contribute to theory by providing evidence that increase in the minimum works or does not

This study considers the conditions of income, wealth and poverty in the United States of America. Income got a better distribution during the 70s but the level of economic growth decreased aggravating the unequal distribution of income (Stone, et al). However, wealth enclosed an inequality of distribution in the United States. It is referred to the unequal distribution of assets among residents of the United States. Also wealth is associated to the values of homes, automobiles, personal valuables, businesses, savings, and investments. In this context, statistics of poverty indicate people living at the economic adversity without satisfying their basic necessities. In mention by the article named “Measuring Poverty (A New Approach),” the statistical data of poverty is published by the U.S. government being a topic of importance and political sensitivity.

In the article “Poor Statistics” (Eberstadt, 2009, p. 26), it revealed how Washington is lacking the statistical tools to effectively measure material hardships in America. Also, it tells how the official poverty rate indicator is outdated and incapable of providing the accurate poverty information. They have been using this method for calculation the poverty rate since 1965 from the reported annual income of each family. The poverty threshold is the budget based on household size and composition that will be used and adjust the inflation rate. However, when this is finally determined, it will determine the percentage of the population that is counted officially poor. In 1973, America’s poverty rate was 11.1%. In 2006, it was 12.3%. The official poverty rate measures income not consumption. According to the

We need to take into consideration that income will not always reflect the extent to which a family can afford necessities. So when measuring and accessing whether someone lives in poverty we need to take into account both low income and material deprivation. This is because an individual may not fall below the poverty line, but lacks the basic necessities for everyday life and this needs to be acknowledged as it is an important factor contributing to a good quality of life. But as we know in this context, household income is measured after the effect of taxes and benefits (i.e., disposable income) and is equalized to adjust for differences in household size and composition, (McGuiness, 2017). We know this is a good concept as it is intended to account for the fact that a large household will need a higher level of income to have the same standard of living as a smaller household. Income can be measured before or after housing costs are deducted (BHC or AHC). Its suggested that poverty levels tend to be higher based on income measured after housing costs, because poorer households tend to spend higher proportion of their income on housing.

In 2010, about 46.2 million people were considered poor. The nation’s poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent, whereas in 2009, 14.3 percent of people in America were living in poverty (Censky, 2011). That is an increase of 2.6 million people in 2010. In the United States, the federal poverty line – an absolute measure of annual income – is frequently used to determine who is categorized as poor (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). Currently the government defines the poverty line as an income of $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four (Censky, 2011). In sociology, poverty can be defined using two terms – relative deprivation and absolute deprivation. Relative deprivation is a comparison between people and social class. With

This study discusses efforts to update the national measure of poverty. The official measure of poverty was executed in 1969 and represented the cost of a minimum diet multiplied by three. Regarding mounting concerns with the measure, the Census has undertaken the construction of a “Supplemental Poverty Measure” (SPM) that incorporates necessary expenditures on food, clothing, shelter, and utilities and adjusts for in-kind benefits such as food stamps and other household expenses (e.g., medical).

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

Poverty has been on a incline since the economic downturn in 2007. Poverty is defined as “the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount”, but a more modern definition used today is “in state of being extremely poor”. According to “Poverty in the United States” a report done by Congressional Digest, the poverty line in 2012 was 15.0 percent, which represents 46.5 million people living at or below the poverty line, and was 2.7 points higher in this year than in 2007. The article also stated that in 2012, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty was 11.8 percent and 9.5 million and the median income for households was $51,017, which means many of these households have students who become eligible for free lunches. In Lindsey Layton’s article “Most Public

The expert committee has commonly revealed three major criticisms of these poverty lines. One, the consumption patterns underlying the rural and urban Poverty Line Baskets (PLB) remained tied down to those observed more than three decades ago in 1973-74. Hence it had become outdated. Given the rise in the living standards resulting from accelerated economic growth since the nineteen-eighties, the consumption pattern of the poor has also been changing. It is not reflected in the poverty lines. Two, crude price adjustment for prices was leading to implausible results