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.

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 is widespread issue that is prominent in mainly third world countries, but many are naive to the fact that poverty occurs right in our country’s backyard as well. Although the United States in the recent years has been the leading developed countries for opportunity and freedom, however even with our technological advances and knowledge poverty still continues to be an issue in some neighborhood in the United States.  According to the National Poverty Center, in 2010 it was documented that 15.1% of our country was living under the petrifying conditions of poverty. Not only do these conditions drastically effect the nation’s economy, but they also have a massive impact on the health of each individual citizen. Over the course of

Poverty is a word that slips nicely off the tongue but for many lack definition. Poverty is a state of deprivation of the fundamental human necessities including the provision of adequate food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. Poverty is the root cause of high rates of child morbidity and mortality. Poverty has and always will be detrimental to the world if action is not taken. Albeit, action having been taken, these actions have never truly touched the public consensus on an emotional and psychological level. As a result, millions are still suffering from an environment that damages their well being mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Some things you can fix, others you simply cannot and sadly, the damages of poverty (once done) you cannot. It hampers their very survival

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

Everyone’s health is affected by genetics, environmental factors, and socioeconomic status. Genetics cannot be prevented but with screenings and early diagnosis, prompt treatment can improve the quality of life for the individual. On the other hand, illnesses and diseases associated with environmental factors and poverty are concerning issues that can be prevented. An alarming 60% of an individual’s health is associated with their social and environmental factors (Huffington Post). Children are especially sensitive to these two factors as they are in their prime years of growth and development. Poverty is highly associated with living in areas with air pollution, high crime, and toxic waste and evidently, not having sufficient funds to pay for food or bills. Poverty stricken parents usually have to make the difficult decision of picking whether to pay for the bills or buy food. Usually, they will choose paying for the bills to try to avoid eviction, leaving the family to portion out small meals in order to survive which can cause children to become malnourished. These poor conditions can lead to various illnesses and diseases such as asthma (New York Times).

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

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 existing worldwide epidemic and it is affecting millions of adults and children mentally, physically and emotionally .Poverty is the inability to purchase or have access to the basic human needs. This includes food, shelter, education, clean water and proper sanitation .It depends not only on income but also on access to services. In 1998 a UN Statement on poverty, signed by the heads of all UN agencies stated: defines poverty as “the denial of choices and opportunities, violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to; not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

Despite the ups and downs of the country’s financial state, one thing that hasn’t changed is the identified vulnerable populations that for years have felt the long lasting impact of poverty. Prior to the Great Depression in the 1930’s the economically prosperous state of the country had long been blanketed those still struggling with being economically disadvantaged. Of course, those that chronically felt this impact were women, the disabled, people of color, the disabled, and those with low paying and unreliable jobs. James Patterson referred to this as “old poverty” (America’s struggle against poverty). However in 1929 when the stock market crashed and began the Great Depression “new poverty” began and those who previously had well paying jobs and owned real estate were now also experiencing life in poverty. Many have historically placed the blame of the Great Depression on President Hoover (1929-1937) and his employment policies in addition to his wage policies. In fact 18% of the 27% fall in GDP was directly associated with Hoover and his policies (What caused the depression Ohinian). It wasn’t until 1933 when President Roosevelt (1933-1945) came into Office that the state of the nation began to change.

The purpose of this article was to study the effects poverty has on elder’s health and quality of life in Etimesgut District, Ankara. 116 elders were selected for this study and given a questionnaire about their health status, health care utilization and quality of life. It was also evaluated with four other different tests to get an accurate score. “The Chi-Square test, Independent Samples T test, One-Way Analysis of Variance, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test (YILMAZ, F., ÇELİK, C., & NUMANOĞLU TEKİN, R. 2014)”. 168.94 Turkish Liras was the average monthly income of the participants which was below poverty level. This causes them not to ask for help when they were sick because of their low income. Poverty declined quality of life, has a bad effect on health and how an individual performs.

Poverty has a profound impact on the cognitive needs of individuals in family dynamics this includes both parent and children. Some researchers indicate minority races have more cognitive stressors than other races that live in the same cities (Finegood, Raver, DeJoseph, & Blair 2017)