Poverty And The Hunger Games

Poverty, people are born into it. People can sink into its grasp, or people can escape. But it’s a hard journey. As for Kevin Powells mother growing up in the south she never saw money, for “at the age of eight in a field picking someone else’s cotton”. (p. 86) Being in poverty is based out financial needs, being poor is one thing. Poverty is just below that, for you barley have enough to get by and sometimes you are places in a setting that could risk health or safety.

Growing up poor in the Bronx and living with my mother and two siblings, I could relate to the “poverty” part of the reading On the Meaning of Plumbing and Poverty by Melanie Scheller. Scheller grew up in poverty with her mother and her siblings in rural North Carolina in the 1960s. They lived off the land in less than stellar conditions and at times in dilapidated housing which was all that her mother was able to afford.

Poverty affects over 767 million people in the entire world. In the United States alone, poverty affects more than 42 million people. According to feedingamerica.org, of that 42 million affected, 13 million children and over 5 million seniors live in poverty. Poverty is grouped into two different categories; absolute and relative. Wikipedia.org defines absolute poverty as the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities. This includes not having safe drinking water, not having clean bathroom facilities, not being able to get proper healthcare, not having access to education and not having proper shelter. Absolute poverty is also referred to as living in extreme poverty. Relative poverty, according to wikipedia.org, is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live. The meaning of poverty varies from country to country and person to person. For example, while some people in the United States would be considered as living below the poverty line, a person from another country may consider that person rich. However, poverty is simply when an individual is unable to meet their basic needs. This includes not being able to clothed, house or feed oneself or one’s family. Poverty is a problem that will not be easily solved. There have been many attempts to try and end poverty, but yet it continues to grow. In a country such as the United States that’s

Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.

Poverty is a major issue that has worried America for years. America has worked extremely hard to end poverty,it still widely exists. There are some solutions to this world problem though such as food stamps, shelters, and obama care. It is important that while the challenges facing poverty are large, the solutions are feasible and can happen.

The U.S. is among the richest countries in the world today, yet millions of people in America still live below the poverty level. The number of Americans living in poverty is increasing day by day as well as the number of children. Poverty in America has become a great threat to children’s wellbeing as they are affected emotionally, socially, and even in their school performance (Wood 720). Poverty in America is mainly caused by lack of jobs. Many people who live in poverty in the United States is due to lack of jobs and getting jobs with minimum wage. Another cause of poverty is due to the rise in the cost of living. Poverty exists in America despite the fact that is among the richest nations in the world.

Poverty has been an ongoing issue since the birth of this Nation. When one thinks of poverty the last people we think of are the ones closest to home. As children some are told “finish your dinner, there are starving kids in Africa”, but what about the starving children whom are in neighborhoods close to us? Poverty is everywhere, even the places that are thought of as wealthy. Poverty in America; a continuing issue.There are many different definitions of poverty. The United States Census Bureau states that

Nelson Mandela once said, “Poverty is not natural it 's man-made.” This quote states that a person can overcome poverty if one has the desire to live a better life. In a novel called Poor People written by William T. Vollmann, the author travels around different countries and places to learn about poor people and to get a global perspective view. While interviewing different kinds of people, Vollmann would ask them one question: why are you poor? Looking at people 's answers Vollmann noticed that some of the people gave quite interesting answers. Vollmann went through a lot of situations where he just couldn 't imagine what life would be if he was ever to live like that. Another novel that has a similar poverty situation is called Let The Water Hold Me Down, written by Michael Spurgeon. Hank, the main character of the novel, experiences a tragic moment in his life. Losing his wife and daughter while drowning, this tragedy left him feeling like it’s all due to his miscarrying about them. His life becomes full of sorrow, and the only way out it was to go to Mexico to his friend’s place and restart his life over. In a new country of Mexico, this story takes place. Even though he had money, a house, and friends’ support, he still experienced lots of pressure trying to survive in Mexico. Poverty has different meanings in everyone 's lives but by reading these two novels, there are three similarities that can be made about people living in poverty.

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

Although poverty has shown itself to be particularly difficult to escape, without doubt there are steps that can be taken by an individual or a family in order to move up and out of poverty. There are many ways to achieve economic success and to also move up the income ladder. Education, Dual-earners, and Savings and Wealth are three ways.

Poverty is a huge factor in the world and in our society. There are several steps we could do to try to possibly reduce the percentage of people living in poverty in the U.S. This is a huge problem in our economy and how it affects people that work for their money. Poverty in America is a news topic that is often overlooked. The demographics that are hardest hit are children, the elderly, and the unemployed. ("US Poverty Level By State.")

Most people have heard of the Hunger Games, but don’t know the true meaning. People say it’s a book (or movie) about innocent people getting slaughtered. It may look like that but there is so much more depth. When authors write books, they add their perspective and beliefs. It could be about government, religion and many more controversial topics. In the Hunger Games, the author Suzanne Collins shows what she thinks about government. She does this by relating the Hunger Games to the gladiators and Ancient Roman times. Even the names of characters relate. Hunger Games may not be a sweet and innocent book, but there is a good lesson behind all the violence.

While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.

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

Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this