Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on Lost Decade

Poverty is a multifaceted issue, it is dependent on many factors and the ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work. Out of all the possible explanations as to why people are still living in poverty in the U.S., the structural view of poverty covers the most bases. The structural view of poverty explains that poverty can only ‘be understood and explained only with reference to political and economic characteristics of the society’ (Kerbo, p.266). With this in mind, this theory considers the position of the poor in the occupational structure. Since the poor have jobs that require low skill, which means anyone can learn how to do them, there is much more competition for such jobs. Those with jobs that require greater skills, such as doctors,

Living or subsistence wage is amount of income needed to maintain basic standard of living. Theoretically, this wage should bring people out of poverty if implemented. The real take home wage for most workers are far below this ‘utopic’ living wage. Absence of living wage for most workers has been recognized as a contributing factor to the difficult task of upward social mobility with resultant diminishing equality of opportunity and relative poverty for most workers in this country today. The concept of working poor is born out of this dystopic social stratification. The threat this and other social determinant factors posed to the realization of the lofty goal of ‘American Dream’ are the subject of this paper.

The book “The Other America”, written by Michael Harrington, describes poverty in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when America became one of the most affluent and advanced nations in the world. The book was written in 1962, and Harrington states that there were about 50,000,000 (about 25% of the total population) poor in America at that time. The author did extensive research with respect to the family income levels to derive the poverty numbers, and used his own observations and experiences to write this book. This book addresses the reasons for poverty, the nature of poverty, the culture of poverty, the blindness of Middle Class America with respect to poverty, and the responsibility of all Americans in addressing the issue of poverty in America.

Poverty is a big problem in the United States. According to Charles Zastrow, “in 2012 over forty-six million people, about fifteen percent of our population was living below the poverty line” (p. 117). In other words, there were a great amount of people living below the poverty line the poverty line. The poverty line is the minimum level of income needed for secured needs of life according to the government. Poverty causes malnutrition, homelessness, School dropout’s drug abuse, and much more.

Compared to the rest of the world the United States is economically prosperous however, many citizens are plagued with poverty and destitution. Poverty has become such a problem that one in six Americans are living below the poverty line (Yen). Despite the significant number of Americans living in poverty, most Americans are unaware of its vast scope and scale. The public’s apathy towards poverty has caused it to become an invisible epidemic. The middle -class’s flight from the cities has created de facto segregation between the impoverished and the financially comfortable. Lawmakers find that running on the platform of “fixing poverty” is not appealing to the majority of their middle-class constituents. The media turns a blind eye to

In an article written by Angus Deaton, he discusses the issues behind poverty and why it is persistent in the United States. In the beginning of his article, he presents data from the World Bank which states that 3.2 million out of 769 million of the world's poorest people are living in the United States and are living off of less than $1.90 a day as of 2013 (Deaton). Some of the arguments he mentions that may contribute to the United States high poverty rate include where our poverty line is set, the quality of our necessities, and our government aid.

Currently more than 46 million people are impoverished. Poverty exists because the economic system is organized in ways that make the wealth, wealthier at one end and creates conditions that make poverty inevitable at the other. The economic system creates poverty in other ways such as the drive for profit. The economy will set value higher for competition. Competition motivates companies and management to gain control on cost. It makes it a common choice to move jobs from countries to countries where labor is cheaper and workers are neutral about working in poor conditions. Decision making also has terrible effects on millions and millions of people, families and communities. Having a full time job cannot guarantee of a decent income, which is why so many families depend on the two or more earnings from jobs or other adults just to make a living. Battling between work and families also brings a dilemma to families and decision making. For instance, divorce is increasing resulting in large numbers of single parent with families who have a hard time depending on themselves for taking care of their child or children and a living income. “A separate issue that contagiously attempts to measure trends in poverty and income levels more generally is difficult of measuring changes in the cost of living (Feldstein,

There are several issues that Jerome H. Skolnick and Elliott Currie are trying to address in their book, Crisis in American Institutions. One of the substantive issues that they are addressing is poverty in a nation of wealth. Specifically, they are addressing how to cut the poverty rate in half. They put an emphasis on building a stronger economy, with more lively communities so that there is a better nation with no bad neighborhoods in extreme poverty and where stable work is a protection from poverty and a way out of it (91). This paper is going to talk about a major issue that Skolnick and Currie address along with their positions on that issue. They used data to help the readers understand where they are coming from. The paper will conclude with me explaining if their argument and data use was convincing along with my opinion on the subject.

Katz (1983) summarizes the history of Poverty in America has been going on for many years. But in the early 20th century is when the people of the United States started to become more vulnerable to poverty and when poverty started to become part of the United States background and history. “When industrialization started advancing after the Civil War, wages were raised with the work being done. This had opened a new door for Americans to be more vulnerable. Immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans moving across the United States due to war, racism, and the industrialization of farming” (Katz,1983). It leads to the Progressive Era led to the high unemployment and dangerous factory environments. This quickly led to conditions in the urban

Poverty has long been a topic of importance for people. They have always sought a way to somehow eliminate poverty from society. In the mid 20th century, politicians waged a so called “war on poverty”. This led to the eventual creation of the welfare system which assisted those living in poverty

Isabel V. Sawhill wrote an article in 2008 titled “Poverty in the United States”. She talks about how poverty

According to rob Grunewald, in each and every country poverty rates are depending upon the health of their economy. If the county develops their economy then people can easily take jobs because of increase in the opportunities of job in that country. Moreover stronger power of labor market and highly level of income be inclined to help those who live below the poverty line. According to the national data the rates of poverty have moved to some degree together with changes in the unemployment rate subsequent to 1959 and the lower poverty rates harmonize with reductions in unemployment or increments in wage. The author utilize the U.S. unemployment rate, middle wages, a measure of imbalance in money and district of the nation to forecast yearly

The study of poverty that was in the twentieth century during the second half was moved toward the problems little differently, the concept of relative poverty was then introduced. This was then to define poverty, as a level of income that would stop individuals that are participating that is in the life of the society that the people live in. The man called Peter Townsend was the key when it came to the development toward the used of the relative poverty that was of the studies of inequality and deprivation and in 1979 his view

There is a very wide range of income for individuals and families. This is why we have people that are very wealthy which are referred to as the upper class and there is the middle class that makes an average income, and the bottom of the income bracket lies the people in poverty. Poverty is a condition in which a person or family does not have the means to satisfy basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Your race does not matter, every race has people that are in poverty. But as it is statistically shown, different races have a different number of people in poverty. In 1996, the federal government established a minimum income level below which a person or family is declared in

Poverty has been evident since The Great Depression in the 1930’s. Since then, there has been an attempt to lower poverty level, though only a 2.5% decrease has been seen since 1965. It is argued that we do not need another war on poverty since nothing has seemed to help, but this is an issue that affects everyone. As Mark Bittman stated in his article “Why We’re Fasting” “This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document.” Poverty can be improved if more emphasis is added to helping individuals or families out of poverty, instead of assisting them through their lives, by improving existing laws or implementing new laws centering around the idea of a fixed income.