Poverty Of South Carolina Is An Issue For All Citizens Essay

Nelson Mandela once said, "Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom” (Make Poverty History, 2005). Gwinnett county is third in the country when it comes to a high poverty rate, with 14% of the population living below poverty (Family Promise of Gwinnet County, 2013). As an educator it is important to familiarize with the county of which one is to teach in, and poverty is an issue in Gwinnett county. One must understand the affects of poverty on

1) Poverty is defined as having a per person income of less than $2 per day, expressed in U.S. dollars adjusted for purchasing power.

The Federal Government defines poverty as income that falls below the United States Poverty threshold. (Begun 95). If a person

When I think of the term “poverty threshold”, I imagine some kind of physical barrier that is holding poor people back from living a normal life. These people fall under the poverty level and struggle for quite some time, like a fish out of water just hoping for someone to throw them back in so that they could possibly live a normal life. When looking at the gross yearly income that determines the poverty level, which is at about $31,800 for a four-person family (as of 2006), I think to myself ‘How can all of these people be living in such low standards?’ Well obviously they do not have a choice! I mean most of the people in poverty live in dirty places that are screaming with disease and they

The Poverty Line is the level of income below which the income of the household or individual is

Poverty is the state of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. The Census Bureau issues a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If a family's total income is less than the family's threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty. For example, according to the poverty thresholds a family of 4 should be able to live off of 24,000 a year and a family of 9 or more should be able to live off of 49,000 a year. Although the Democratic Party is usually the first to address this issue, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party agree that poverty is a huge problem here in the United States, they just have different

According to a report from the Budget & Tax Center of the North Carolina Justice System, despite economic gains and recovery, poverty in North Carolina either remained the same or increased from 2007 through 2013.The report found that in 2013, poverty in North Carolina (defined as a family of four living on less than $24,000 a year), was "the most widespread it had been since before the turn of the century." This brings to mind what Ronald Reagan a former US President once said “We fought a war on poverty and poverty won. With 17.2 percent people from North Carolina now counted as poor according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey,we might not be far from the truth to think he may have been right.

In the United States, the Census Bureau sets the official poverty line. The figure used to compute a person’s poverty status includes any earnings, Social Security payments, child support, or other assistance. Then, using the size of the family and the ages of the family members, the Census Bureau determines which poverty threshold applies…According to this poverty measure, 12.5 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 2007. (Introdution)

In the United States, income poverty is defined by the poverty threshold, developed in 1959 and based on expected food expenditures (thrifty food basket) for families of varying sizes. Each year the threshold is adjusted for the Consumer

However, this system of measuring poverty is flawed because if a family makes a dollar more above the set limit, they do not qualify for financial help from the government (NCCP, 2008).The poverty threshold is an inadequate measure of whether people are considered poor or not. Current poverty measures are flawed because it assumes how much a family spends and does not accurately include family resources such as Earned Income Tax Credit (NCCP, 2008). The way that the government measures poverty is based on outdated information that was set in the 60s. Because it has not been sufficient to keep up with the standard of living, those who are living in “high cost cities like New York and those who live in rural areas of the country” (NCCP, 2008) are barely getting by.

Many people ask, what is the poverty threshold or poverty line? The poverty line is the lowest level of income that is believed to be adequate. These things include food, water, clothes, and shelter. The poverty line is broken up into 5 different sections called quintiles. A quintile is five equal groups in a population that can be divided accordingly to the distribution of values. The fifth quintile is the one that makes the lowest household income. To get your income value you would add up all the income brought in by anyone that is seventeen or older in your household. If you are in the highest quintile then you are making more than what than what is needed to be in it. For example, if your household income is $60,000 and you needed $100,000 to be considered in the highest quintile and $25,000 or lower to be considered in the lowest

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.")

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 and inequality exist in every developed culture and often are only patched in order for society to continue upwardly. Poverty and inequality in the United States exists for many reasons; reasons that very from the prospective lens. Interpretive theories in particular ask us to question our reality and its constructs. Interpretive theories require us to looks at the world as a social realm, one that we created and constantly change. Interpretive theories study the relationship between power and the construction of social roles as well as the invisible collection of patterns and habits that make up domination, (Delgado & Stefanic, 2001). Susan Kemp argues that the view of the world is dominated by the experiences of white western

A social problem, is “a general factor that effects and damages society”. It can be used to describe an issue or a problem within a certain group of people or an area in the world. Examples of contemporary social problems today include anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. Poverty is an example of a social problem that exists all over the world, and to different extents. In the UK, poverty has effected at least a third of the population, as shown by the Office of National Statistics, providing evidence that it is a massive social problem in the country. Tameside has a big poverty problem. 1 in 4 children in Tameside are born into poverty, and workers in Tameside earn significantly less than other workers in the rest of the North-West area. In addition, Tameside has the largest proportion of people claiming unemployment benefits compared to the rest of the North West of England.