One topic that stuck out to me the most during this semester was chapter seven, which is The Working Poor and the Underclass. I feel as if this chapter is and will always be a big topic in society today. Being in nursing school and working at the local hospital in our community, I feel as if this is an issue I encounter a lot. Many people I care for on a daily basis are in poverty and cannot pay for their hospital bills. I see homeless people and other individuals barely surviving and just want a warm place and a meal to enjoy. From reading this chapter, I learned that there were different types of poverty, the amount that poverty exists, as well as new information about the homeless population. All throughout high school and even in my first …show more content…
Until reading this chapter, I was unaware of just how many people were actually in poverty. Our textbook states that poverty rose from 2007 to 2008 being that 39.1 million were living in poverty of the year 2008. It is unbelievable to think so many people are living in poverty and struggling to live day to day. It really makes me stop to think about every person that I walk by daily could be living in these conditions. Whenever I look at charts and view socioeconomic history at work or during clinical hours, over half of patients are unemployed due to being laid off or being unable to work due to a medical condition. Working in the emergency room will really open an individual’s eyes to see how many people come in because they cannot afford care or are found on the streets. Working in the medical field you always strive give the patient the best care possible no matter what. However, when you see someone who has it worse than you, there is nothing I want more than to help that patient in every way possible whether it is to give them a bath or provide them with a warm meal. Our books also mentions that race can affect poverty, stating that Caucasians have a lower poverty rate compared to African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. From a personal experience, I have not had an Asian patient dealing with poverty and the rate of Caucasians I have dealt with …show more content…
On a typical trip to Greensboro you see many homeless individuals on the corner of streets and at stop signs. It also is becoming more common in Asheboro near Walmart and other community stores. When we think of homeless individuals, many people think of people without shelter or characters who wasted their money on drugs and have no money. Now that I am in nursing school, when I see an individual on the streets begging for money or having nowhere to live, all I can think of is that they could be sick or have diabetes with no way to control their blood sugar levels. It is sad seeing homeless people on the streets and most people just turning their heads as they drive by. The homeless population are at an increased risk for developing diseases and illnesses and not being able to get the proper treatment. I felt that I have learned quite a bit of knowledge from my nursing textbooks about the homeless but our textbook for sociology has provided me with factual numbers and statistics about each ethnicity group and age groups. Race also impacts homelessness just as it does with poverty. Our textbook says that about fifty percent of homeless individuals are African American with Caucasian being the second highest. As mentioned earlier in the paragraph about the different types of poverty, I feel that this information about statistics is viable to my current and future career to help aid for better treatment and care after
The presentation of these facts should be met with an equally opposing force to change the homeless rates for the better. With all the tools and opportunities that can be used in this field, why should we not act upon it? It's time that we as a people band together to fix something that is bigger than ourselves. All too often we bring appeals to our government that are, if we can be honest, very selfish. To better understand a sympathetic point of view, imagine a loved one being out on the streets. Would that change a person's view on helping those without a home? Would the loved one hope, desire, and pray for an advocate and supporter to help carry them off the streets? The answer to both of these questions is yes. These are the points of view one must veer into in order to fully understand why it is such an important and relevant
It had to be difficult, but also a sense of relief for Harriet to hide so long in the confined space in her grandmother’s shed. I say this because she would not have to deal with anything concerning her master and his wife. She showed her love for her children by taking a risky chance to spend time with her children. She could have been spotted by anyone and she would have severe consequences for hiding from her master for so long.
The National Coalition for the Homeless, (n.d.) found there are over three million people homeless in America at any given time. Research as shown that homeless individuals often are treated differently just because of other people’s perceptions toward them (Boydell, Goering, & Morrell-Bellai, 2000; Harter, Berquist, Titsworth, Novak, & Brokaw, 2005). Persons wanting to work with homeless individuals should be aware of any biases they bring with them when working with this population.
Robert Reich asked the Wealth and Poverty Class at U.C. Berkeley three main questions, one of which was when does inequality become a problem and how much can we tolerate. Mr. Reich later on said “some inequality in inevitable” however that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth. The richest four hundred Americans had more wealth than the bottom hundred fifty million Americans put together. Since the wealthy continued to grow wealthier the average working man continued to be constant in terms of income. The wealthy do not spend as much as the average middle-class person. They however place their profits into oil, gold, art, etc. and thus generating more profit later on for themselves. Because consumer spending is about
was conducted. In 2014, surveys found that the poverty rate when counting female head of households rose up to 28.4%; this, compared to the statewide's poverty rate of 11.4%, demonstrates the dire need to aid the homeless in our community. When conducting research on the subject of assisting the homeless, I hit various impasses, until I stumbled across a procedure called "transitional housing program." This program allows those facing eviction to maintain their homes or find more affordable houses, provides the head of the household with rent, and even aid families in moving out of shelters. So, that being said, I have formulated a few research
For some people, life is colorful and comfortable. However, to some people life is tough, destitute and merciless. The older people get, the more responsible they are. People need to face with many things in life with many various aspects, some can find the ways to solve the problems, and for some people, especially low income working family. They are still struggling for jobs. and seeking for better opportunities. Most of them belongs to “working families”. They are a part of the family which has two heads of household work and those people have regular jobs called “blue collar” with a minimum wage and hours of working. The result is that problems come to them easily, especially in the United States. Since the economy of the world gets
Poverty is a worldwide problem that is quite detrimental to health, however it should not be the first goal accomplished. According to the United States census, fourteen point eight percent of people which equivalent to forty-six million seven hundred thousand citizens that were living in poverty (“Poverty” About). Despite this percent not being a majority, a very large number of people are affected. These people have
Walking down the streets of many metropolitan areas, a person is often faced with an often ignored problem: homelessness. Homelessness in America could be considered a major issue considering that over six hundred thousand people are homeless at any one time. Of those homeless, 46% were individuals not regularly occurring homelessness, 37% were individuals with chronic homelessness, and about 16% were families (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2013).
Across America, we’re all classified by at least a category, and social class happens to be one of them. The homeless, being the lowest class is often looked down on. According to preliminary figures by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), in 2013, homeless Americans experienced a 23% increase in violence compared with the year before. Hate crimes are common among the homeless, especially in Florida according to, Huffington post. Cousins Jose Llano-Xolo, 14, and Juan Xolo-Merlin, 17 was using “self-defense” when they put a homeless man in a chokehold and stabbed him with a pen. In Seattle of March 15, two off-duty firefighters and a female companion attacked a homeless man sleeping on a memorial. Love, smiles and hope are the positivity I want to be spreading like giving change to the homeless for example, instead of discrimination, which is harsh. Nearly half of families in the US live below 250% of the federal poverty level based on the Hamilton Project. One mistake, even a penny short can lead people into poverty, even a dollar can literally mean a lottery win, because every bit counts, it’s either life or death.
that economic changes had much to do with the plight of the underclass. However, they
The very poor and vulnerable knowingly place their health at risk because they have to make a choice between health care and feeding their family. Simulated scenarios provided a brief experience of what people who live at or below the poverty line go through on a weekly basis. The simulated scenarios gave the class a glimpse of how lack of money and resources impacts safe and quality health care delivery. Living in poverty can create a social, economic, and physical environment that impacts the health of families in various communities.
Think back to a time when you were in a classroom filled with roughly 30-40 students , all of whom you have some prior knowledge about. When you look back do you stop to think about whether or not they live in a home or shelter that provides their needs , or do you overlook them and think about what they are wearing or the latest technology they were donning? The reality is people often overlook the important aspects of life and instead focus on the materialistic things. Homelessness is not just a problem that is in the Redding/Shasta County area , or the United States of America , but it is a problem that is worldwide. According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council or NHCHC , “ A
“Anyone who has struggled with poverty knows how expensive it is to be poor” (James Baldwin). They are so many people who are on the poverty line and they are living paycheck to paycheck. People who are living in poverty not only have to face being poor, but also the effects of living paycheck to paycheck as well as not being able to afford a lot of things that they or their children may need. Poverty is a problem people should be aware of because of the keys to understanding poverty, the need to assist children, the ways to help adolescents, and the benefits to donating money.
The definition of poverty is a state in which income is insufficient to provide basic necessities such as food, shelter, or clothing. When one is in poverty, they adapt practices that differ from “mainstream” culture in order to adapt and survive economic deficiencies. The analysis of those practices is called the culture of poverty. The underclass plays a big role when it comes to the culture of poverty. Those in poverty set the culture that others may follow and ultimately what sociologists and others analyze. Some of the practices are illegal forms of work, like drug dealing. Other practices include living in multifamily households and swapping. William Julius Wilson, an American sociologist, has two arguments when it comes to the underclass and poverty. Wilson’s first argument is that class is more of an issue than race in determining life chances for people of color. His second argument states that the real culprit of poverty is discrimination, gentrification, deindustrialization, and globalization. Wilson’s ideas of race and class provide a different perspective on class inequalities.
Homelessness became a major issue in the 1870’s when the rates of mental illness and substance abuse became much higher. “About 25 percent of the homeless population has a serious mental health illness, including chronic depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia . . . 46 percent of homeless respondents reported having an alcohol use problem in the past year, and 38 percent reported using a problem with drug use in the past year” (Gillard 5). Additionally, African Americans only made up about 10 percent of the population, whereas now the rates have raised to 42 percent followed by families with children at about 41 percent. Overall, people are usually uncomfortable when they come across someone who is homeless or panhandling merely because they are unsure on how to act and respond. In the future there is hopes to alleviate this issue by helping the percentages drop drastically just as they did rise.