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Essay on Poverty in America

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The Background of Poverty in America In the United States today there are many reforms that had been made to help cope with those who are living in poverty. However, these reforms have been keeping many from being able to climb the social class ladder because the “War on Poverty” has not been effective on ridding poverty in the U.S. According to the Heritage Foundation, there are about forty six million people who are living in poverty and it is a conflict in this country because it puts people of lower class at a disadvantage because they have to choose between necessities like healthcare, child care and food in order to help themselves and their family members; therefore, many sacrifices have to be made to insure their survival. Though …show more content…

Since 1964, President Johnson declared an “unconditional war against poverty” in his State of the Union. The Johnson Administration passed many reforms such as the Social Security Act, Food Stamp Act, Economic Opportunity Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to aid the 19% who were suffering through poverty at that time and these reforms were able to help lower poverty rates in the U.S to 11.1% for the next decade (Raab, 2013). Though many of these reforms were able to help the lower class, the reforms were unable to keep up with the increasing standard of living. Under President Obama, the U.S still uses these reforms that were passed under the Johnson administration. From his first term, President Obama has been on the issue of poverty in America and has promised many he would help the lower class improve their economic conditions. Nevertheless, the talks Obama gives on this issue has demonstrated little rhetorical leadership and has only emphasized issues related to poverty which makes him similar to past presidents. Today about 14.6 percent of the population (Raab,2013) are still living in poverty and this pressing issue will not change if presidents continue to direct people on what to do about poverty, change would not be made. Instead, presidents should facilitate this problem because there needs to be more drastic changes that will help the lower class.
Conflict Theory Conflict theory was first introduced by Karl Marx who saw that class

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