Poverty And 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.

As a main theme in Hunger and Shame, child malnutrition is a serious problem that has affected many different societies. Child malnutrition is a complicated concept that often has many causes; each society is different and must be studied closely to fully understand the reason for such a horrific epidemic. Focusing on the Chagga population, many factors catalyzed the epidemic including environmental, cultural, and global.

Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”

“Hunger and malnutrition are the number one risk to health worldwide. Each year the death toll exceeds that of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.” There are around 800 million people in the world deprived from proper nourishment and statistic say it’s possible to feed everyone, but is it really? There are many different causes of hunger, such as: poverty, wealth inequalities, natural disasters, war, and food/ resource waste. Although there are many causes of hunger, thankfully there are some solutions that could be quite effective. These include: education, transfer of wealth, empowering women, international support, and technology. Despite the fact there are many solutions the crucial step in ending world hunger is implanting them into society successfully.

The concepts of “worthy” and “unworthy” poor came about during the English Poor Laws that were introduced in the 1500’s. The English poor laws classified poor or dependent people into three major categories and established many requirement before aid was provided. Dependent persons were categorized as: vagrant (nomadic; with no permanent home or employment), the involuntary unemployed and the helpless. In effect, the poor laws separated the poor into two classes which were the worthy and the unworthy. The worthy were classified as orphans, widows, handicapped, or the frail elderly. The unworthy were the drunkards, suspicious, or lazy. (Hansan, J.E. (2011). Poor relief in early America)

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.

Although many see poverty as a choice, made by those who are lazy and prefer to do nothing but expect to reap the same benefits of people who work hard every day to provide for their families. In some cases this may be true but, poverty will wreak havoc on any and all of those who have the misfortune of crossing paths with it. Poverty is alive and well throughout the world, and it has an unyielding pulse here in the United States. It has been discovered that "The poorest families in America are those headed by people who are shortchanged even in times of prosperity" (Gallaway, & Garrett, 2016, p. 1). US Census data estimates 46.7 million people or 15 percent of Americans now live below the poverty line, including 1 in 3 households

Poverty. The word has a different meaning and effect on people from all different cultures and economic backgrounds. Society ignores it. It seems to be a dirty word that no one wants to speak aloud much less think about. The large amount of people who fit under this unfortunate category do not wish for others to know that they are in this certain economic status. It is easy for the idea of being poor or a part of the working class to create a shameful and embarrassing self image, because of people’s actions and the trending material items that cloud primary judgement. As a child, I did not have the best clothes or toys. My family was made up of a single mother who was required to take care of two children. The author of Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, Bell Hooks, provides you with an idea of her background in a earlier stage of her life. Her and I both came from a household where using something without permission was considered wasteful and wanting material items seen in stores were out of the question. My childhood, as I continued growing up, was still very enjoyable in every aspect. Wearing brand named clothes was never a focus for me and this did not influence how I felt about myself. My mother was hardworking and and provided me with the essentials. Although hooks’ overall message that people in a state of poverty feel negatively towards themselves is valid, she fails to present the full story that the poor

World hunger is on the rise since the turn of the century. Many people overlook world hunger because there are many organizations supporting the cause. Awareness has been brought towards the cause but surprisingly the number still keeps going up. “In 2016, the number of chronically undernourished people reached 815 million, up 38 million from the previous year” (McVeigh, K). Having 11% of the world’s population be undernourished is a serious problem that many people are not aware of. Even though there is a campaign to end world hunger by 2030 it will be impossible to achieve if people don’t start to help. UNICEF has recognized this and has launched it’s own world hunger campaign that has inspired many to make a difference.

Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better

Hunger and poverty are related because children of poor families have double the chance of being hungry than families that are well off. In the United States hunger is exhibited as multi-national and food insecurity. U.S. Agriculture reports that 31 million people in our country are hungry or likely to be hungry soon. Consequently, out of 31 million, one and ten million people suffer actual hunger and missing meals without a choice. The average family’s household normally runs out of food before receiving more money for sustainability.

About 22,000 children die each day as a result of poverty (“Child Mortality Rate Drops”). On their website, The World Bank calculated that the amount of people living in extreme poverty was likely to fall below ten percent in 2015. Even though the poverty rate has decreased, there are still many people living in extreme poverty. One billion children in the world live in poverty and organizations like Compassion International are helping give them a new life (“Poverty Facts and Stats”).

Poverty is fundamentally the result of the way society is sorted out and assets are apportioned, whether these are money related or different assets, for example, access to housing, wellbeing, social services and education. Without a doubt, that there are altogether different levels of poverty, what this means is that every country faces different level of poverty due to their resources and opportunities. Individuals or nations that face Poverty additionally need to manage with inequality too. For example economic inequality, healthcare inequality, social inequality, etc.

As our world population continues to grow exponentially, issues arise due to need of compensation for a larger populace. In attempts to prevent further damage and decline in demographic progress, increased access to effective family planning and contraceptives for women has assisted in decreasing population growth and unwanted pregnancies, which eventually will lead to a decline in poverty. Those impoverished due to minimal access to proper family planning and contraception are the reason behind much of the poverty that our world is experiencing.

The gap between the rich and poor has never been wider in history, than as it exists in society today. While wealthy individuals are relished a luxurious life, millions of innocent people are forced to endure an immeasurable amount of poverty, conflicts and lack of food. For these disadvantaged people living in poverty, hunger is an everyday dilemma which they must deal with in such an overwhelming and shocking way. The time for a drastic change is must need. Shockingly, over 22,000 children die every year because they are malnourished and don't have a decent home to live in. Poverty is increasing day by day - leading to more children living in scarcity and lacking basic education. Poverty is one of the largest issues in modern day society. It is a global problem, and it is increasing at an extremely alarming rate. Scarcity and poverty can be seen through examples of how hunger is developed through poverty and how it's affecting the poor, the lack of education in undeveloped countries and the relativity of economic growth on the balance scale with poverty.