Pelle's Poverty

Post the economic crisis in America and the recession during the years of 2008 and 2009, the country saw a great increase in poverty and worsening of living conditions of Americans. Currently, almost 50 million of fellow Americans are living in extremely bad conditions under the poverty line which means earning less than $11490 for a single person or $23550 for a family of four people. That’s about 1 in every 6 people in this country are living under poverty. A person living in this country on minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour also cannot pull himself out of poverty even after working 40 hours a week.

Homelessness is an epidemic problem that faces many American’s and families across the United States, especially in Detroit. You may see homeless people sleeping in the underpasses of freeways or walking and sitting on street corners or holding up a sign asking for some support for their next meal. We all have seen homeless individuals and thought it was not our problem for their circumstances or maybe had a belief he/she was lying about their situation. Many of us make a choice to give money or buy food, but there are others who make a choice to ignore or overlook the homeless population. Society has placed a stigma and label the homeless population labeling them destitute by choice, but for many homelessness has become a way of life.

The poverty theory developed by Lewis (1968) and Payne (2001) argues that the culture of poverty is both an adaptation and reaction of the economically disadvantaged to their marginal position, low socioeconomic status and impartibility in achieving success. According to the poverty theory established by Lewis (1968), there are many traits associated with the culture of poverty. Families living on poverty have a level of education and are living in inadequate housing conditions. This factor is often associated with low academic achievement and success of economically disadvantaged students. Consequently, Lewis (1998) contends that children living in poverty are often exposed early in life to drugs and alcohol, abusive relationships, and single-parent households dominated by the female parent.

The story, Pele-Why Soccer Matters mostly focuses on Pele’s life. It depict his life as a child, but the book eventually transitions into his career as a young World Cup player. Pele goes into great detail when describing how he played in the 1958, 1966, and 1970 World Cup. He also writes what it was like to grow up as a poor child in a small Brazilian town. Pele also describes his post-World Cup days and playing soccer in America.

Some more things that happened to Pele was Peles mom had to clean and basically had to be a slave to rich people she had to clean, make food and, do their laundry. Also Peles dad was a janitor for a small hospital and he had to clean dirty toilets most of the time. ¨Since Peles family was poor Pele and his siblings and his friends had to clean or polish shoes or sell peanuts when they came home from school even if it was rainy¨ from Pelé Birth of A Legend. Pele was also kind of in a depression because when his friend died he was so sad he didn't play soccer and he went to work to help his dad and he never talked for a while but that soon

Absolutely, poverty is a problem that seems to get little attention from our government. There is over 3 billion people living in poverty globally (Shah, 2014).

Lourdes is a twenty-four years old mother of two who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She is separated from her husband. Her children’s names are Enrique and Belky. She scrubs other people’s laundry in a muddy river and sell tortillas door to door, used clothes and plantains as well as sell gum, crackers and cigarette in order to provide for her and her children (Nazario, 2014, p. 4). Lourdes is trying for her children but because of their financial situation, she is struggling to make ends meet. The essential items that the children needs like school uniforms or pencils, she cannot afford it needless of the school fees. Due to this, her children may not be able to finish grade school because she cannot afford the expense that it will cost. Due to this, Lourdes has decided to embark on a journey to the United States where she will go and work for a year and during this time, she will make money and send it home to Honduras for her children’s upkeep but before she did, she had to decide who was going to take care of her two children. She decided to let her mother and sister

According to Schwartz-Nobel, America will lose as much as 130 billion in future productive capacity for every year that 14.5 American children continue to live in poverty (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007). Sadly the seriousness of poverty is still often clouded by myths and misunderstandings by society at large. This essay studies the issue of poverty and classism in today's society.

Although the region of Evanston has been making evident progress towards community improvement and sustainability, the issue of poverty and low income still remains. Considering different demographics and factors that make up a community, such as individual and family incomes and school lunch reduction programs, can be significant when evaluating income and poverty tendencies. Before analyzing current trends within Evanston, it can be sensible to research past trends and findings. That being said, according to the 2000 census, it was found that 24% of families were living below the poverty line, which otherwise accounted for 459 families total ("The Social Areas of Cincinnati," 2015). Furthermore, when examining trends from 1990-2000, it was found that the total number of persons living below the poverty line increased by 26%, while the city total actually decreased by 18% ("Plan Cincinnati," 2015). It can also be important when assessing household incomes and poverty lines to consider the average household income within the community in order to properly assess the significance of life in poverty within Evanston. That being said, the median household income within Evanston is only $22,763 (realtor.com, 2015). Although the information regarding the specificity of how far under the poverty line community members of Evanston exist is hard to come by, it should be noted that 35.7% of individuals residing in Evanston live below the poverty line ("Neighborhood Scout,"

These three pieces of literature explore the evolution of poverty in America and the actions taken by those who fought to combat it. The Invisible Land by Michael Harrington clearly establishes the new definition of poverty nearly fifty million Americans experienced in the 1960’s (Harrington, 1970: 5). For the impoverished, the mass production and mechanization that fueled the expanse of the middle class ironically camouflaged the poor. Through inexpensive, mass produced clothing, the poor were able to blend into society. Additionally, the new and efficient highway systems linking the suburbs to the city, cleverly hid the slums of the poor, thus blinding the commuting middle class (Harrington, 1970: 5). Impoverished America truly became out

Despite being extremely poor, Pele developed into the world’s greatest soccer player of all time. Pele’s family had little clothing and sometimes could only afford to eat “bread and a slice of banana”

Not only does soccer have many benefits, it is a unique sport because of its many notable achievements. Some of these achievements include world record breakers for both men and women. It is believed that Pele was considered the greatest soccer player of all time. In 1960 he was called a “national treasure” (Helmer and Owens, 17). Pele helped Brazil win its first World Cup in 1958 at the age of seventeen. His determination could be seen when he became injured in 1962, yet was still able to win the World Cup for Santos. Even though he was injured again in 1966 he played outstanding in the 1970 tournament. He retired from International soccer in 1971 and also from club soccer in 1974. He later came back to play for the New York Cosmos from 1975 to 1977 (Gifford, 54). In twenty-one years, Pele played 1,324 professional games and scored 1,282 goals, including 8 goals in a single game (Helmer and Owens, 17).

When Pele was 11 he created a soccer club called the September Seventh Club, named after his street. They used a big sock stuffed with newspaper as a soccer ball. They played soccer so well that they decided to join a tournament. At the tournament, a Brazilian soccer star named Waldemar de Brito, saw Pele had the great potential to become an amazing

Poverty traps are economic anomalies that continually reinforce poverty within a country’s, or multiple countries’, economies. There are many different types of poverty traps such as savings traps, “big push” models, nutritional traps, behavioral traps, geographic traps, etc. that all affect an economy in different ways. Not only can poverty be enforced through these traps, but also through the way an economy is run or the moralities of the government. According to Mark Koyama (2015), poverty traps are important due to more than 3 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, living on less than $2.50 per day, and about 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty on just $1.25 per day. Among these 3 billion some people living in poverty, one billion of them are children of which thousands are dying daily. It is necessary to study these different poverty traps in order to begin to decrease the distressingly high percentages of people living in poverty.

Poverty has been evident since The Great Depression in the 1930’s. Since then, there has been an attempt to lower poverty level, though only a 2.5% decrease has been seen since 1965. It is argued that we do not need another war on poverty since nothing has seemed to help, but this is an issue that affects everyone. As Mark Bittman stated in his article “Why We’re Fasting” “This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document.” Poverty can be improved if more emphasis is added to helping individuals or families out of poverty, instead of assisting them through their lives, by improving existing laws or implementing new laws centering around the idea of a fixed income.