Poverty : Living For A Better Life

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.

My birth took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina, into a family of six including myself. Years passed, my mother gave birth to a girl and was pregnant soon after to another. My father, a strong laboring mechanic decided that it was time he moved his three boys and soon to be three girls from the home he literally built with his bare hands alone, to another country with grander opportunities, not for himself, but for his six children. He decided that with the money that cost him years of tireless work and stress he could only afford passage for himself. He set off for the United States and for months he worked day in and day out, any job he could get his hands on. He paid for our flight and had a modest, dainty apartment awaiting our arrival.

What is poverty? Poverty is the lack of the necessities to live, such as nutrient, clean water, education, healthcare, clothing, and shelter. People all over the world are unable to afford these basic needs. Poverty has been a problem all throughout history. There will always be people who are hungry and homeless. It doesn’t matter what the prosperity level, or median income is. Starting a campaign to plan to end world poverty through volunteer work is a start to ending this crisis. Poverty isn’t going to be solved in a day, a week, or even a year. It’s going to take some time to end this world problem. People take for granted what they have. With poverty comes diseases and hunger. Poverty is responsible for many world problems and people all over the world can help end these issues.

My parents and I emigrated from Mexico when I was very young. I was born in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, Mexico. There my father, my mother and I lived in a shaggy one bedroom brick shack that lacked all the common utilities we take for granted here. There was no electricity nor was there plumbing inside the house. During the night time we had to light up oil lamps only when absolutely necessary and everything that required water usage was done outside. When my parents discovered my mother was expecting another child they finally decide that was not the life they wanted for their children. They left behind

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.

As we stepped in to 21st century, humankind still faces poverty, insecurity, diseases and warfare. Often causing massive amount of migration to a safer land that offers better and secure future. Immigration brings its own challenges that is almost unique for every immigrating humankind and hosting nation. Therefore, immigrants face issues that they have never faced or even thought about. Trying to cope through unseen issues and even putting core values on the line, immigrating often have very interesting challenges.

Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Based off this definition poverty is a condition that can cause a cascade of cause and effect actions that is detrimental to families and individuals both physically and mentally. Haan, Kaplan, & Camacho (2017) completed a study on the correlation between social and economic status and health in adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the lower the socioeconomic class the higher incidents of diseases and deaths related to chronic diseases (p.1161-1162). Just being without money or little money was not the only indication of health indication, a person living in an area with higher poverty issues

I was born in the state of Zacatecas, México in the year 1996, but raised in the city of El Cerrito Del Agua, Ojo Caliente. I lived there for the first seven years of my life before moving to the United States. My parents, Jaime and Guadalupe were both born in El Cerrito del Agua, as well as for my two little brothers at that time, Gerardo and Bernado. It wasn’t a big city but instead had a population of less than 1,000 residents. Even though it was a poor place we all managed to survive and live happily. The schools and homes weren’t in their best condition but they were all we had. I lived my early childhood very happy along with a lot of loving and caring people. That place holds my family’s history. Being born from

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

There are three main arguments believed to be the explanations for the existence and persistence of poverty. The first account is the Dependency-Based Explanation that puts the blame of poverty to the individual or to their cultural background. The Exclusion-Based Explanation and Structural-Based Explanation are the next two which establishes the society that condemns people to poverty.

In the world there are at least one billion children that are living in poverty. There is at least three billion people in the world that live on less than $2.50. (Shah, 2013) Poverty can be seen everywhere around the world. Carl and Belanger (2012) states that poverty happens when the distribution of wealth is not equally divided between all groups of people. Poverty in Canada is defined as poor quality of food, sleeping in poor quality housing, parks, or city streets, and on a daily basis it is difficult to make decisions on what is best for you and your family. Living in poverty will decrease your life span and health, and could lead to criminal offenses just to stay alive. Aboriginal people, immigrants from other countries, people

Poverty is a massive issue today, it surrounds all of life’s experiences, and it impacts on the future for people everywhere, and on health everywhere in society. Poverty is not just related to unemployment or

Poverty can be defined as the state of being extremely poor. These images that were captured depict what life was like living below poverty and the conditions some individuals face. I am aware of these sometimes horrific conditions people live in, especially children. We are reminded by these images that there are people who live without, without the comforts of the amenities that we sometimes take for granted, such as beds, blankets, the use of running water, and readily available food in our fridge. Even after natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, many families are unable to restore or rebuild their lives. Living in poverty before a disaster, without insurance or reserves, would make it even more difficult for someone to provide essentials after a catastrophe occurred.

All over the world, many have gone through the struggle of poverty. You don’t have to be homeless to struggle more than the next person, it could be just not having lights on in your home, past due rent, or maybe not having enough or anything at all to eat. Many, feel like because they go through similar things that they will never accomplish anything due to them not having the resources. Others around you can be very doubtful of you too, which could make you believe even more that you weren’t meant to go further in life. Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Small’s song “Juicy, released in 1994 from his Ready to Die album, selling over 607,000 copies is a great example of living a life of poverty. Biggie tells of his story through song, where he relates of doubtful people and his struggle. This song is about a young black male who went from poverty to living his version of the American dream based on textual analysis of the lyrics.