Poverty In The Mississippi Delta

The state of Mississippi is so poor that they are ranked last in there Per Capita Income a year. In the Mississippi Delta, some people mostly African Americans live in conditions nearing 3rd world poverty. Homes are ramshackle, food is scarce, and there is standing water and sewage in some places

Memphis is notoriously known for its shocking poverty rates, which are higher than the poverty rates in Shelby County for every category (2015 Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet), and that is not a good thing. Memphis is also known for its high unemployment rates and its low availability of a skilled workforce (Does Memphis Have a Fighting Chance), and that is not great, either. Finally, it is well known that Memphis has one of the highest crime rates in the country (Memphis TN: Crime Data and Crime Rates), and that just takes the cake. While it is common to focus on these negative aspects about Memphis, it is not a complete description of this multifaceted city. It is my position that there are many positive aspects to Memphis that are overlooked

Poverty is everywhere in America, and there will always be poverty. Nobody has found a solution to it. If you live in a city you will probably see it every day. A lot of times people do not have a

The current poverty rate in America is 13.5 percent (US Census Bureau). That measures out to roughly 43.1 million Americans. What exactly is poverty? Poverty means not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is so much more than just not having enough money. Poverty is not having access to a doctor or medications you may need, poverty is not having access to a good education. Poverty can be the people who are barely able to pay for food and shelter and simply can’t afford other expenses such as car repairs, field trips with their children and any other extracurricular activity.

I always believed that you are considered wealthy when you make a high income. According to the authors, most high income earners are not rich, which surprised me. Most people with high incomes fail to accumulate any lasting wealth. They live hyper-consumer lifestyles, they spend their money as fast as they earn it. I always perceived millionaires as living the lavish life with their big sport utility vehicles and huge mansions. Well I was wrong, in

Discuss whether the most effective way to have income and wealth equality is to tax income more progressively.

Mississippi Delta became very industrialized in the early 1980s. The Delta had risen from a swampy wilderness through its heyday as the New South’s Old South to its post-New Deal status as a planter’s paradise, where those who reaped the benefits of a rapidly modernizing plantation economy also managed to maintain their dominance in social and political sphere. Agriculture remains the backbone of the region 's economy, but farms that once required hundreds of people have become more technical. In the Delta, cotton was once king and many people became dependent upon the development of cotton, and now cotton no longer need someone to pick it, farmers have target the growth of livestock, soybeans, sweet potatoes to make profit. By the late 1980s to 1990s, the proportion of all jobs in natural resources and manufacturing had decline from 31 percent to 29 percent in the Delta. Recently, U.S. Department of Labor has proven that the unemployment rate in Tallahatchie County was about 10 percent, reaching a year high of about 13.5 percent by the mid of 2010.

In 2004, the median pre-tax household income was $44,684; a poverty line based on relative deprivation would have been $22,342.” The Delta was already poor before these setbacks. Poverty has a different effect on people whether it is emotionally, mentally, and physically. Racial problems that continue to rise from segregation, slothful economy, high density of poor health and unemployment characterize the Mississippi Delta today. The Delta still represents the past because when people speak about poverty this impoverished region is first to come to mind. The causes of poverty have not only transitioned lives in the Delta, but the state as a whole. The Mississippi Delta has been a tough place for African Americans for many decades. As mentioned

Income – for an individual, the amount of money received through wages, rents, investments, pensions, and subsidy payments for a given period.

This definition can be used throughout the world to define absolute poverty because basic needs are the same for all humans. A fixed income is often used to define absolute poverty throughout the world; living on less than $1-2 per day (Palmer, G, 2010). The difficulty with this figure is that in richer countries it will still be impossible to obtain the basic needs on that amount of money whereas in poorer countries it may be possible to live on such a low sum, albeit with great difficulty. This illustrates the problem that placing a figure of money to define poverty creates and shows why the different term, relative poverty, is often used.

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

Poverty is an issue that is faced by multitudes of people around the world. Poverty itself is defined as, “the state of being poor” (Merriam Webster). According to Sara S. McLanahan, of Princeton University, “In the United States, poverty is defined as not having enough income to pay for basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter. Poverty is a family attribute. In other words, if a family is classified as poor, all the members of that family are also poor” (McLanahan, n.d.). The U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013 shows, “there were 45.3 million people in poverty” just in the United States (U.S Census Bureau, 2013). From those living in poverty, in the same year, “the ratio of the female poverty rate to the male poverty rate was 1.2---women were 20 percent more likely to be poor than men” (Mykyta, 2013, p. 2). Also, “of all people categorized as in poverty in 2011, approximately 56 percent were women” (Mykyta, 2013, p. 2). Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, director of the Human Development Report, portrays a simple truth, “women are poorer than men” (Fukuda-Parr, 1999, p. 99).

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.

Poverty is the lack of the basic needs of life, including food, shelter, clothing and safe drinking water. For a person to live normally, it is important to meet a certain level of physical, social, and emotional needs. People who live in poverty have difficult time to achieve those as they are not welcomed in many places. Because of their low incomes, they have troubles in maintaining their health, hunger, education. Poverty has become a large issue around the world. It is something that many of us know about but we’re not realizing just how big of a problem it is. This paper will include basic information about poverty, its effects, facts and statistics which can make people aware and want to help reduce poverty.

In this book, it is found that the author manage to give detail explanations on each factors that is believed to cause poverty. The author makes progress and develops the ideas convincingly by providing adequate information based on statistical data and empirical evidences. In chapter four, the author argues that level of education affects the potential earnings of household. Indeed he writes, “The access to education expands the potential for human capital thereby enabling one to qualify for better-paid jobs” (29). To support his argument, the author proves it based on the results of the survey in which it is presented in table 4.1 that show the distribution of household heads based on the level of general education.