Should The Government Replace Poverty In The United States?

Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.

A key factor to understanding how poverty exists is to understand what it does to the victim’s brain. The conditions that come with living in poverty such as overcrowding and exposure to violence can affect a developing brain negatively in the same way drugs or alcohol does. The stress that comes with living in poverty during childhood has over time led people into depression and certain forms of addiction in their adulthood. According to Ostrander, “poverty perpetuates poverty, generation after generation, by acting on the brain.” The maternal stress response system is a very crucial thing to the development of a child’s brain and may crumble under pressure, releasing certain hormones that affect its development. While some children are able to

For a nation of 323.1 billion people, it is astonishing to see the people of America unaware of some situations. According to The Center for Poverty Research, in 2015, an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty according to the official measure. We are not doing enough to help those in need. Of course there are places for people to get help but so many people are struggling. “In 2015, 12.2% of men lived in Poverty USA, and 14.8% of women lived in poverty” (The State of Poverty). As a nation, we could try to be more considerate to the people that need help. “Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave” (How Poor is America’s Poor?). Some people suffer silently. They may have all of these things but they will always be in need of assistance. Our government has ignored the poor people of America and it is time to take action. Already, there are food

The past half century has drawn boundaries that separate the poor and the comfortable; this separation is a factor is poverty’s invisibility.

Throughout years poverty has been an ongoing situation that has only been increasing throughout the years. Many efforts have been issued by the government over the situation; but yet many of those efforts have failed to succeed. Increased dependency is the only long term impact that government efforts have had on poverty. By solving poverty the government could make the economy grow more for everyone , because many people would be going back into the workforce. The government has a responsibility to end poverty through providing education, better programs, and jobs.

Poverty in the United States has been a very big issue throughout its history. Poverty is both an economic condition and a social concept. Poverty in the United States first took place in the 19th century and till this day. Poverty was caused by people being selfish and not allowing everyone to have a chance on being successful. Poverty took a big hit from the Great Depression to the Great Recession that led millions of people down. Since then the poverty rate has been going up and down, never keeping a steady pace. “In the late 1950s, about 22 percent of Americans nearly 40 million people were on poverty” ("Poverty"). This means that poverty is a big issue and everyone needs to contribute to fixing this problem. Since this is a big issue

Poverty is a serious dilemma in which people live in starvation, do not get educated, and have to work hard to survive, similar to what the Youngers face in the story, A Raisin in the Sun. Their situation is so bad that Ruth can’t even afford to give her own son fifty cents to take to school even after it was a requirement and not just a want. Beneatha wants to become a doctor but does not have the resources to pay for a higher education. Poverty has been a complete chaos since decades ago and sadly, is still one today. Robert Rector examined that the Census Bureau reported “a record [of] 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010” (Rector, 1). However, comprehending poverty involves “looking behind these numbers

Poverty in the United States today has many faces. There’s the pleading face of a middle-aged man on a city street holding up a sign that says “Hungry, Need Help.” There’s the anxious face of a young child in a schoolroom somewhere, whose only real meal today will be a free school lunch. There’s the sad face of a single mother who doesn’t have enough money to buy clothes for her children. And there’s the frustrated face of a young man working at a minimum-wage job who can't afford to pay his rent.

The scourge of poverty in the United States of America is a tragic story that seems to never end. When President Lyndon B. Johnson fired the first shots in the “War on Poverty” in 1964, the rate declined by a several percentage points in the coming decade. Sadly, whereas in 1964 the percentage of Americans in poverty was approximately 17 percent of the population, the rate still stood at 14.8 percent a full 50 years later in 2014. The ongoing plague of poverty has given rise to a moral value shared almost universally in communities across America: in a society as prosperous and successful as ours, it cannot possibly be considered moral to bear witness to so many poor people who can see little or no way out of their lot in life. Unfortunately,

Today in the United States poverty is a big problem that gets worse by the day and not a whole lot gets done about it. Poverty in the United States comes from the prolonged economic recession that forced millions of Americans into poverty, with nearly 15 percent of the population or roughly 46.7 million people living below the poverty line in 2014. What most people think the way money is divided up in the United States is actually pretty far off what the reality is. Over the years there has been reforms to help those who are living in poverty, but those reforms have been holding many people back from moving up the social ladder.

The psychological health of children around the world is detrimental to their abilities to cope, succeed and be able to function normally within social settings. According to Evans and Shamberg ( 2009), “Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement” (p. 6545- 6549). Children residing in poverty stricken neighborhoods and families tend to experience environmental stressors as well as physical stressors such as educational setbacks, lack of resources and physical demands that are not being met. These stressors can cause a problem in the psychological health of children because of the need to continually adjust to changes and setbacks that stem from poverty.

Fundamentally, if one produces a myriad of cortisol when fretting then one is drained of cognitive power and self-discipline, hence, the birth of the self-destructive behaviors. Poverty can stimulate a futility situation that is naught but for one to suffer and worry in the ceaseless game of angst, anguish, and despair similar to an inhumane test experiment.

“High rates of child poverty are a cause for concern, as low family income has been associated with a range of negative health, education, justice, labour market and social outcomes. Negative health outcomes include low birth weight, infant mortality, poorer mental health and cognitive development, and hospital admissions from a variety of causes” (Craig, Reddington, Wicken, Oben & Simpson, 2013, pg. 24).

The pinpoint cause of poverty is challenging to find. People who live well off and are above the poverty line may be quick to assume that laziness, addiction, and the typical stereotypes are the causes of poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich, a well known writer on social issues, brings attention to the stereotypical ideology at her time, that “poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles” (17). Ehrenreich is emphasizing the fact that statements like the one listed, often influence readers to paint inaccurate mental pictures of poverty that continue to shine light on the ideology of stereotypes being the pinpoint cause to poverty. However, there are many other causes that are often overshadowed, leaving some individuals to believe that poverty was wrongfully placed upon them. Examples would include: high rates of unemployment, low paying jobs, race, and health complications. Which are all out of one’s ability to control. There is no control over a lack of jobs and high rates of unemployment, nor the amount of inadequate wages the working poor receive. Greg Kaufmann, an advisor for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Half in Ten campaign, complicates matters further when he writes, “Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent. Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent” (33). Acknowledging Kaufmann’s fact, the amount received for a family of four is fairly close to the yearly salary of a high school graduate, which means, receiving that kind of pay for one man may seem challenging, now imagine caring for the needs of four individuals. To make matters worse, certain families receive that amount of money and carry the burden of paying for

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, but yet poverty remains prevalent. Childhood poverty affects every aspect of their life. “Poverty is not having income for basic needs, food, medical care or basic needs and housing” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 59). Poverty is affecting thousands of Americans every day, and it isn 't sparing anyone of a particular race, age or gender, leaving people on welfare, and without homes, or transportation. Poverty is a crisis that deserves attention from everyone, and it has many faces that are often not recognized