The Issue Of Poverty In America

When most people think of poverty they think of somewhere overseas, however; poverty is a lot closer to home than one might think. The winding, twisting roads of Eastern Kentucky have picturesque scenery, but many of the people here are struggling in these hills. The people of Eastern Kentucky have been dependent on the coal industry to feed their families and pay their bills, but this once thriving industry has been on the decline in recent years. Without coal, Eastern Kentucky is facing a grim future and many of its residents are struggling with the effects of losing one of their main employment opportunities.

For the first time, this report shows that by investing an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing programs and policies that increase employment, make work pay, and ensure children’s basic needs are met, the nation could reduce child poverty by 60 percent and lift 6.6 million children out of poverty.

Poverty can be characterized either as far as a clear salary level or as a relative condition that progressions as society reclassifies it. As the age of the world grows and progresses among the middle and upper class, the lower class is struggling to keep up with the rest. As citizens they have the right to be in the same boat as other successful people in the world, they just do not have an advantage in doing so. Communism is not in the conversation, but many of the working people in poverty deserve to be paid as normal to keep a home and more. Poverty can be reduced drastically with just a little help and kindness.

Poverty defined by the American Heritage Dictionary is “lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts” (Hirokazu Yoshikawa, 2012). Poverty in the United States is an issue that is often times overlooked because the focus of poverty is on developing and struggling countries. People often think America does not experience poverty because it is such a thriving country. The problem with this is that America is indeed struggling with poverty: “there are currently 488 counties in America where twenty percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for the past thirty years or more” (Clyburn, 2014, p. 1). Utilitarian ethics supports the idea to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In this case, the greatest good for the greatest number of people would be to stop poverty in the United States. The causes of poverty include: lack of jobs, lack of education, and overpopulation. The reasons are linked to government policies and the way the officials handle situations.

Poverty has been a headache that every country tries to get rid of. The war between every country and poverty has been going on for a long time. This war is not only happening in the third-world countries, but it is also a problem in the leading country such as the United States. Throughout the history, the United States of America has been constantly trying to wage war again poverty by trying to reform structure, improving living condition of the homeless, increase minimum wages. Even though, some reforms may have been able to decrease the percentage of poverty, they can never completely destroy poverty completely. There are varieties of ideas as to how the U.S can eliminate poverty, and one of these ideas is the reforming of the tax system. This idea has become a heated debate whether it can actually make the dream of every low-income family come true. However, reform the tax structure alone cannot completely eliminate the poverty in the U.S for several reasons.

When discussing ways to combat poverty, it is important to know that poverty is not a singular phenomena. American poverty is particularly unique because it takes shape in two forms, both absolute and relative. This paper will explore the absolute and relative poverty-related problems within America and analyze whether these forms of poverty can be completely solved through economic growth alone.

American economist and statistician, Mollie Orshansky, was the woman who gave America the way on how to measure poverty that we call the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds. The Census Bureau issues the poverty thresholds every year and that produces the status of the American people economically. The very term “poverty” continues to evoke debates on what it actually means to be poor. There are many studies that have been conducted to determine what is the cause of poverty in America and what we can do to help diminish it. From a sociological standpoint, one thing everyone should focus on when it comes to poverty is to ask yourself why people are living the way they are. People do not just wake up one day and decide that they want to be poor, let

When we think of the word "poverty", the mind fills us with Third World countries. We think of countries within the African continent, Haiti, Central and South America, among others. The United States is a country with a heterogeneous society, full of many races and nationalities. However, we forget that poverty can be in front of us. How many times have we wondered if our neighbor, coworker, or our students are going through some need?

Absolutely, poverty is a problem that seems to get little attention from our government. There is over 3 billion people living in poverty globally (Shah, 2014).

Poverty is a humongous problem in the United States. 43.1 million people in the United States are living below the defined poverty line. Even worse, 15 million of those people are children. And we don’t offer any kind of relief. 70% of people born in a lower income household stay there for their entire lives. This isn’t happening because they are lazy, nor because they are complacent in their position. Some of these individuals are working two, three jobs in an attempt to stay afloat. Even with this work ethic, they stay in poverty, because they aren’t being properly compensated for their work. Working full time on the current minimum wage yields 15,080 before taxes, not enough to keep a family of two out of poverty. This means that a single

Poverty is an ongoing and major problem in the United States. Having low paying jobs, and being millions of dollars in debt is one of the main reasons why this country is struggling to deal with the poverty issue. The cost of living in this country has sky rocketed and shows no sign of slowing down. Poverty is an issue that the nation needs to address by raising the minimum wage and lowering the price of living along with higher education in the United States will help solve the poverty crisis.

As the morning sun rises, most of us awake to a day of never ending opportunities and possibilities to make a living of ourselves. But for others, the rest of the day only brings tension and desperation as they attempt to survive with barely anything. The condition or quality of being financially unstable; in need; inferiority; inadequacy; scarcity of the most basic necessities, this is known as poverty. To common folk, this term makes us naturally visualize adults losing a typical well paid job or home and simply transition to ‘being poor’. In the United States, poverty is mainly characterized in terms of income level and how poor adults have been perceived as different from the rest of society generally due to their lack of money and access to all the world.

Poverty is one of the most prevalent issues in our world today. In many third world countries, most of citizens live in poverty. Somalia is one of these third world countries that have extreme rates of poverty. There are many factors that have led to these major rates of poverty. Somalia’s economy is very bad because of the high unemployment rates and piracy. Because of the civil war that happened in Somalia, the government is not able to help decrease poverty levels. Lack of education in the country makes it difficult for people to get jobs. The economy, the government and the education levels are some of the most prevalent issues leading to this high rate of poverty within Somalia.

Poverty is a social problem that has increased the risk of poor health and criminal activity in the United States of America. Consequently, poverty is different from other social problems, as a result; it affects people in different ways, and it limits development of people’s skills, ability, knowledge, and everything about them. A social problem is a social condition or pattern of behavior that affects some individuals or all people in the society. According to Kendall (2013) social problem is systematically disadvantage or harm a significant group of individual or when they are seen as harmful by groups of people that wield power, wealth, and influence in a group or society. Additionally, problems that harm a significant number of people include violence, fear of crime, environmental pollution, and inadequate access to health. However, there are some problems that occur in the society, not all these problems meet the proof to be defined as a social problem. Pursuing this further, not all circumstances occurring today in the society can be easily changed.

Social issues are problems that influence a certain group of people and are considered undesirable within any given society. Poverty is a social issue that affects a lot of families in my community. Poverty is the lack of resources required to attain the basic needs and wants, which affects people’s living standards. Poverty occurs due to unemployment, lack of low-cost housing, among other reasons. The America government over the years has tried to tackle poverty through various ways (Broussard & Joseph, 15). Social employment schemes have been set up, which allow individuals to be taught new skills that provide them with a chance of being employed.