The Pros And Cons Of Poverty

Poverty affects over 767 million people in the entire world. In the United States alone, poverty affects more than 42 million people. According to feedingamerica.org, of that 42 million affected, 13 million children and over 5 million seniors live in poverty. Poverty is grouped into two different categories; absolute and relative. Wikipedia.org defines absolute poverty as the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities. This includes not having safe drinking water, not having clean bathroom facilities, not being able to get proper healthcare, not having access to education and not having proper shelter. Absolute poverty is also referred to as living in extreme poverty. Relative poverty, according to wikipedia.org, is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live. The meaning of poverty varies from country to country and person to person. For example, while some people in the United States would be considered as living below the poverty line, a person from another country may consider that person rich. However, poverty is simply when an individual is unable to meet their basic needs. This includes not being able to clothed, house or feed oneself or one’s family. Poverty is a problem that will not be easily solved. There have been many attempts to try and end poverty, but yet it continues to grow. In a country such as the United States that’s

Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However poverty is more than not just having money. In addition to a lack of money, poverty is about not being able to participate in recreational activities; Not being able to send children on a day trip with classmates or to a birthday party, and not being able to pay for medications in times of illness. The poorest people will also have less access to health, education and other vital services. Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society. The poorest are also typically marginalized from society and have little representation or voice in public and political debates, making it even harder to escape poverty. Poverty is a direct threat to society and equal rights in America.

As poverty continued to spread throughout the United States, an explanation for poverty was to be expected. Generally, poverty is the lack of resources to supply basic needs. However, there are various competing ways to determine the reason for poverty. One view is individual-focused explanations which targets the personal responsibility of the individual in determined their place in a poverty-stricken life. While the opposite view is a structure-focused explanation that primarily blames the society’s structure.

In the mid-1960s thousands of Chicanos, people of Mexican descent, walked off the California grape fields in which they worked in protest of exploitation and poor working conditions. They wanted fair wages, better working conditions, and education for their children. They wanted all the opportunities that were extended to other Americans. Among the disgruntled employees was the soft-spoken César Chávez, who believed that his people’s plight could be resolved through the mechanism of non-violent protests. Chief among these mechanisms were his firm belief in fasting and non-violent strikes. These beliefs were the combined result of his childhood experiences, significant

As citizens of the United States of America, we are extremely lucky. We have the freedom of speech, the right to religion, and all around free-will. We are a free country. Thus bringing attention to the less fortunate parts of the country is not easy. The citizens of the country tend to turn a blind eye to the hardships that some people face. Why aren’t we doing more to help those in need? As a country united, we need to be doing more to help the people in poverty, hunger, and who are homeless 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.

The topic of poverty is America has been both a huge focus and a sore subject for many. There are differing opinions on how to handle our growing population of people below the poverty line, with some saying the solution is the good old “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” rhetoric to others saying impoverished people have children and refuse to work just to get bigger checks from their states.

Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Based off this definition poverty is a condition that can cause a cascade of cause and effect actions that is detrimental to families and individuals both physically and mentally. Haan, Kaplan, & Camacho (2017) completed a study on the correlation between social and economic status and health in adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the lower the socioeconomic class the higher incidents of diseases and deaths related to chronic diseases (p.1161-1162). Just being without money or little money was not the only indication of health indication, a person living in an area with higher poverty issues

According to the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Robeson County’s youth death rate is 124 per 100,000, which is nearly twice the state average for 2004 through 2008.

What is poverty? www.merriam-webster.com defines poverty as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. “Many Americans mainly think that poor people consist of being unemployed, lazy, lack of education, etc. I even asked a few random people at Capital University, why people are poor and many said lack of employment and others mentioned having a hole in their pocket and not being educated. Even though this may be true; many Americans lack the facts that many poor people are hardworking people who fail to make ends meet. Many Americans live under three different kinds of poverty, they consist of: Official Poverty, Absolute Poverty, and Relative Poverty. To best understand what all

Poverty is not a simple issue. There is no universal response to it. Latin America is among the poorest of the poor. Most of its population lives in absolute poverty. Poverty is a structural problem in Latin America. Over the past three decades, there have been multiple different options offered to the poor of Latin America to better their lives. To name a few, immigration, drug gangs, informal work, and conditional cash transfers have been presented to them. The last of those four, conditional cash transfers, is the one that gives poor Latin Americans the best hope for a better life.

In a community with plentiful opportunities for commerce how can poverty be an issue? Poverty can be a reason children go hungry. Poverty can be a reason for senior citizens going without needed medications. With poverty comes many issues. Poverty has become a drain to every population, ethnicity, and culture in the world today. Being poor and being in a state of poverty are often used interchangeably, but are not the same thing. Poor can be situational. One can be too poor to afford the materialistic things wanted while maintaining the possession of the things needed. Poor can be the feeling one has two days before payday. On the other hand poverty is the inability to consistently maintain bare necessities. Poverty is having a job but not being unable to afford food, shelter, and clothing. Poverty can mean being homeless and exposed to living in shelters or cars for prolonged periods of time. According to the census bureau more than 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of all Americans lived below the poverty level last year. Dick Gregory’s “shame” and Wallace Stegner’s “The Dump Ground” are similar stories of poverty shown through perception, childhood experiences, and socioeconomic status.

Poverty is the result of the uneven distribution of resources and wealth within the community. People in poverty experience inadequate education, a scarce food supply, lack of proper clothing, and proper shelter. Poverty exists when a household does not obtain the necessary means to meet the minimum quality of life considered normal for the community in which they live. The effect of poverty has the ability to define an entire community. Poverty is generally measured by two alternatives. Those alternatives are Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty. Lives are being shaped on a daily basis. This is a major problem which must be examined in a close scope. This serious problem has the ability to leave long lasting mental, health, and social issues

The logic of poor peoples purchases as they attempt to meet a wealth image they cannot obtain is obscene. It is impossible to provide for their families and live a rich lifestyle under little earnings. Stated by Isabel Sawhill, “None of this means that providing lower-income families with more money is necessarily a bad thing” (Sawhill). The political system works in a matter to benefit poor families with money they do not earn. Poor individuals complain about being poor while it is quite simple to overcome poverty and rely on a career. Pursuing a career and presenting a humble attitude can help with overcoming poverty and presenting a better reputation. Poor individuals need to visualize more than spending money on unnecessary items, work to flip their money without relying on the government, and be themselves not a false image.

There are three main arguments believed to be the explanations for the existence and persistence of poverty. The first account is the Dependency-Based Explanation that puts the blame of poverty to the individual or to their cultural background. The Exclusion-Based Explanation and Structural-Based Explanation are the next two which establishes the society that condemns people to poverty.