Poverty in America

Poverty has always been with us from beggars outside the gates of Jerusalem to the mentally ill homeless woman in the park. America is known for our huge difference in culture and class. This is due partly to the dynamics behind the political decisions of this country. The president himself admits that America is more unequal than it’s been since the great depression and many of his own supporters say he has failed. America now has, by many standards, the lowest social mobility of all of the high-end countries, meaning that a child born into poverty is likely to grow up as a poor adult. This is surprising for a country that not only prides itself as being a middle class society, but as the society where anyone can make it and where

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

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.

The four main types of poverty are class, regional, cyclical and case. The types of poverty are different with everyone who is considered poor.

staggering? Poverty occurs when a person’s need for food, clothing and shelter are not being

Poverty has been around as long as there has been an America. Programs have been set in place to help offset the issue, such as Food Stamps and housing. The government’s implementation of some of these programs is to ensure that the poor have a place to sleep and adequate meals to eat. There are issues with these programs that contribute to the furthering of poverty, but for the most part are more helpful than harmful. While there is a chance that there will always be a poverty line that Americans will be under, there are solutions that can be implemented towards getting many of these people above it. Some options might include keeping jobs within the

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 is “about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter”(what is poverty, 2009). Everybody might know this meaning and the problem.

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

Being poor can mean something to one individual compared to another. Whether it is not having clean water to drink or not being able to afford a new laptop. Poverty is very broad, without a single definition.

Yes I believe poverty still exist in America. First what is poverty? Poverty is a pervasive human condition of being unable to obtain or provide standard level of food, water, and or shelter (debt.org). Many Americans still live in poverty, being unable to literally feed themselves, talk less of a family. Single families especially find it difficult to raise their kids and work at the same time. However, poverty is America is relative compared to other countries like India where become can barely feed themselves, talking about uncertainty to basic necessities and a lack of security. Even though America has no starvation, it has an amount of poverty that leads to malnutrition which causes series of diseases and massively truncated life expectancy.

Poverty has always existed in some form, whether it be marginal poverty, residual poverty, absolute poverty, or relative poverty. It began long before the United States was formed and it followed the colonist here. We can look back to ancient Rome and find that poverty existed even then.

Poverty is such a huge concept it is hard to stuff it down and condense it into a single notion. However a dictionary definition says that poverty is, “ the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions”(Webster Merriam Dictionary). There are also many different types of poverty, but the one most of the world uses to measure the poverty in an individual country is relative poverty. It is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income in order to maintain the standard of living in the society they live in. It is called relative because it fluctuates depending on the specific economic standard in that area (Williams). In America, the United States census bureau determines a state

Poverty, in a very basic sense, is the state of inability to purchase necessary and desired items. However, poverty is much more complex than this single definition (Kirst-Ashman, 2010). Poverty can also be characterized in terms of relativity, that is in comparison to the living standards of the majority in a society. Here in the U.S. the government calculates a poverty line to define an income level that families and individuals must live under to be considered impoverished (Giddens, Duneier, Appelbaum, Carr, 2009). I would also define poverty as the need for programs and benefits to acquire necessities and in terms of the physical, emotional, and psychological effects it creates.

Here are just a few general reasons why people in America are living in poverty: epidemic causes, mental illnesses, lack of access to education, natural disasters, and corruption. So with that being said not all americans live in poverty because of the basic reasons that we assume. I will be conducting a research on the poverty rate, and the true factual reasons people are living in poverty and how us as a society can assist on giving back and helping the less fortunate. .