The Handicapped Poor in America Essays

All children should be offered the same opportunities. Local policy will be based on national policy but with information relevant to the local area (e.g. contact details, list of professional bodies etc.)

In David K. Shipler’s book, The Working Poor Invisible in America the reader is provided a peek into the personal stories of the inner lives of eight families struggling inside the vicious cycle of poverty. Shipler’s method of interviews, narratives of personal stories and observation represents an innovative study investigating the working poor in an attempt to understand “how people in real communities devise collective responses to their problems (Segal, 2010).”

The novel, “The Working Poor” by David K. Shipler gives us an inside look into the lives of the lower class and he explores exactly what it means to do hard, exhausting but honest work in America. The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below the poverty line. While poverty is often associated with joblessness, a significant proportion of the poor are actually employed. Shipler teaches us that just because you have finally become employed does not mean that most or all of your worries are over, often times they are increased. Largely because they are earning such low wages, the working poor face numerous obstacles that make it difficult for many of them to find and keep a job, save up money, and maintain a sense of self-worth. Shipler did an amazing job bringing light to the “forgotten America”.

Poverty has been known to affect certain groups harder than others; people who are more at-risk of being struck by poverty include people with disabilities, children, aboriginal people, single parents, and new Canadians. Poverty is not known to have one single cause, instead it is a complex mix of causes based on each individual case. It can be the result of the social assistance programs that families and individuals are forced to rely on as a mean of support, perhaps cultural barriers stand in the way, or perhaps education, whatever the reason it is a difficult cycle to break. There is a relationship between poverty and poor health, lower productivity, lower educational attainment, and children’s future outcomes. According to Maxwell (2009), Micro data from the National Population Health Survey found that 73% of Canadians with the highest incomes have reported their health as excellent, while 47% of Canadians with the lowest rated their overall health as

For practically every family, then, the ingredients of poverty are part financial and part psychological, part personal and part societal, part past and part present. Every problem magnifies the impact of others, and all are so tightly interlocked that one reversal can produce a chain reaction with results far distant from the original cause. A run-down apartment can exacerbate a child's asthma, which leads to a call for an ambulance, which generates a medical bill that cannot be paid, which ruins a credit record, which hikes the interest rate on an auto loan, which forces the purchase of an unreliable used car, which jeopardizes a mother's punctuality at work, which limits her promotions and earning capacity, which confines her to poor housing.

Poverty and poor health worldwide are inseparably related. Poor health is a direct effect of growing up in poverty; as children living in low economic families may not have access to adequate medical health coverage. Which means the child will not have proper immunization and checkup that they need to ensure good health. Studies show when a child grows up in poverty the child can be underweight (Boyden). Poor under lined illness may also lead to issues throughout a lifespan. Poverty increases neglect of health issues. That causes more health problems which ends in death. Statistics also show that living in poor rule areas, with low quality schools. Even if the parents are highly educated and employed, the employment

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.

Everyone is susceptible to the dangers of lead contamination; but children are especially at risk. High levels of lead in children can lead to brain and kidney damage and damage to red blood cells. Low levels of lead can also cause problems that are less life-threatening but can be just as devastating, like low IQ, hearing and language impairment, reduced attention span and poor school performance. In adults, exposure to lead can lead to an increased risk for high blood pressure. Pregnant women and their fetuses are extremely vulnerable to lead. In women, lead increases the risk of infertility and miscarriages; in fetuses, lead can cause low birth weight, premature birth and impaired mental and physical development.

Of all social determinants of health, we can agree that the most insidious and universal might be poverty because this economic factor influence health in several ways, and it can be both physically and mentally damaging. Poverty affects every aspect of our lives; it determines the distribution of resources; the food we can afford, the access and ability to health care, the level

There are multiple reasons to expect that a person's lead exposure as a child could affect

The author David K. Shipler had an urge to reveal a hidden part of society, which was America’s working poor in 1977. Shipler’s goal was to let the hidden and forgotten part of society is known; which were employed workers that are still struggling to survive. He had confidence in letting people know about the large portion of American society is poor or struggling. Shipler devoted six years of his life to create particular stories about different people and situations throughout his book. Shipler use of research method was processed by interviewing eight different families about their inner lives. This method gave his readers visual of the invisible part of America society by taking his readers on a journey into the world of the working poor by presenting their struggles. He provides the reader with understanding of workplaces, homes, personal thoughts and feelings of the working poor. In each chapter, combines shared experiences and interviews, from different parts of the working poor such as legal and illegal immigrants working in America. Shipler also describes the lack of housing, wages, and health care they receive. Chapters in this book were stories

The amazing statistic that is offered by scorecard is that more than half of these are located in areas where people live below the poverty level. While ample information about Lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust in older buildings are widely advertised and addressed and pose the biggest risk to the lead poisoning in children, there are other sources of lead exposure. Such as in contaminated air, water and soil as well as batteries, home renovations, auto repair shops, and improper storage and disposal of lead containing products

The Working Poor: Invisible in America gives an accurate depiction of the social problems and social policies that are designed to keep the poor, poorer. Shipler uses a variety of stories to depict social welfare programs like the minimum wage act, immigration, Social Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability (SSD), healthcare act, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), drug addiction, sexual abuse, Individual Education Plans (IEP), and the gender pay gap along with many others. The overarching theme throughout the book was that the working poor never make enough money to cover their expenses and the wage never goes up enough over the span of their lifetime.

Lead, a naturally occurring metal and can be used in almost everything. It can cause serious health issues if it is exposed for a long time, particularly in children as they are more susceptible to absorbing and retaining lead in their bodies. Each year, in the United States 310,000 of 1- to 5-year age group are found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, which can cause a wide range of symptoms. (1)

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.