Unemployment In America Essay

People generally enjoy working and being productive members of society. The positive effects of the Welfare Reform Act is moving to eventually end poverty in America and promote economic growth. According to the 2005 report measuring welfare dependents “Poverty in 2003 remains much lower than in 1996, the year of passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The official poverty rate for 2003 was 12.5 percent, compared to 13.7 percent in 1996.” ( Gil Crouse, Susan Hauan, Julia Isaacs, Kendall Swenson and Lisa Trivits, 2005 ) States that design welfare-to-work policies that emphasized getting recipients into jobs by shifting to “work-first” welfare systems can modify program rules to allow more earned income,

The unemployment rate has dramatically increased over the last several months. This increase has created many complications for the American people. Although the United States economy has created over 7 million jobs, there is still a long way to go until the economy is back on track.

So as more people want jobs, they find those jobs are out of reach or they find other problems that are more important to them, leading to less and less jobs are filled every day. And the result leads to more unemployment. the unemployment rate is currently heading down slowly but the hire rate of people under the age of 50 to find jobs has stayed roughly the same over the years. So if the 41% of people cannot contribute to the cycle, leaving 59% of Americans to pick up the pace for everyone. But According to David Akadjian in the past 50 years, Americans have to work up to three times as much for the exact amount of pay, in 2013 the median wage was $27,851 and in 2017 it has only moved up 3 percent higher. so if you had a family of 5 or more you would be under the poverty line. But to look back to the median wage, it is a livable pay for a majority, and there a certain ways to deal with this without getting into poverty. but the problem is if fewer people keep getting jobs and the people with jobs on average, they are getting paid less and less for work. America will begin to topple on top of itself.

“The Economic Policy Institute recently reviwed dozens of studies of what constitutes a “living wage” and came up with an average figure of $30,000 a year for a family of one adult and two children, which amounts to a wage of $14 an hour.” (213). According to Ehrenreich, about 60 percent of American workers earn less than $14 per hour. In all of places where Ehrenreich worked paid seven dollars or less per hour, which means those of people who work in those place cannot even afford to have some essentials services such as health insurance and telephone. Since they cannot even struggle to get out, politicians could takee an action; however, they didn't do any works. “The Democrats are not eager to find flaws in the period of “unprecedented prosperity” they take credit for; the Republicans have lost interest in the poor now that “welfare-as-we-know-it” has ended.” (217). And, they also had a catastrophic error. “In fact, very little is known about the fate of former welfare recipients because the 1996 welfare reform legislation bithely failed to incude any provision for monitoring their postwelfare economic condition.” (217). Congressmen need to read this book to realize the problem, and not satisfy themselves by ignoring failures because they have

It is not enough to provide material relief to those experiencing extreme deprivation(158). Therefore the federal government should establish and create opportunities for the poor to gain and maintain their citizenship in standard living. According to the book, "$2.00 a Day" writer Kaitlyn Edin emphasize one have the strong will to work but opportunities lack extremely, in which concede the fact that there aren't enough jobs with adequate pay, hours, and stability to go around(159). On one hand, I agree with Edin that the will of the poor is there, but the federal government should play more substantive role in getting individuals jobs.For instance, stated in the book, “In-depth interviews with 209 EITC claimants in the Northeast and Midwest in 2007 showed that while TANF receipt confers stigma and shame, claiming the EITC gives people dignity and restores their pride”(172). Also the federal government need to restore relationships in the workplace, increase wage, and prevent wage theft . For example, a successful grocery store called Market Basket located in New England starts employees off at twelve dollars an hour, offer health insurance, and paid sick to all employees(164). Creating better jobs and opportunities is the government role as it is our role to maintain a job and contribute as

With more family income, some people would choose to retire, go back to school, or have children, making it easier for others who need jobs to find them. “According to economist James Galbraith, raising the minimum wage would raise the incomes of 28 million Americans.”

Nationwide government officials often wonder how this country is going to overcome unemployment, and the common misconception is through the provision of low wage jobs. By providing people with some source of income, congress believes millions will no longer depend on government aid. In actuality, however, providing minimum wage work is not going to solve such a drastic problem now, in the future, or at all for that matter. Minimum wage ($5.15), while serving at the socially acceptable pay standard, does not even compare with the nationwide ?living wage? of $10.18 (Ramisch). It is becoming increasingly more difficult to survive on such tragic wages, yet there is often little debate because it is money, and every little bit matters when it comes to paying bills.

In the current economy, where the unemployment rate is significantly higher than normal in comparison to previous years, the people are clamoring for solutions from their leaders in government. There have been plans in the works in the Obama administration to create more jobs, yet nothing has come to fruition. Currently, as Congress is teetering towards gridlock once again, the Republican House Speaker and House Majority Leader have proposed to President Obama that he include a plan called “Georgia Works” into his latest proposal to Congress. The program would find temporary jobs for people without any cost to the employers. These people would also receive job training while getting unemployment pay or payment from the

We need more programs set up to provide training in work skills or a trade so that citizens will be able to receive wages that will easily sustain their families and encourage them to become self sufficient and non dependent on government assistance. It gives great satisfaction for a person to know that they are completely self-sufficient and can provide their family with at least its basic needs. It gives a sense of purpose and builds self-confidence that you do not have when you have to rely on the government or another person for financial help. It requires decision, determination, and discipline.

When people are working, many think that everything is great and nothing will happen to their good life, but in some cases they are fired out of the blue and don’t have anything to fall back on. It is for instances such as these that welfare needs to be available to people who genuinely need help from the government. Some believe that the government should become more selective in choosing recipients of welfare in order to prevent people from taking advantage of the programs, but the government should remember that many citizens (about 35.4% of the population) depend on government aid such as Medicaid, SNAP, food stamps, etc.

Today, the state of our nation’s economic security is at stake; the gap between the the lower/middle class and the upper class grows wider every year, and the effects are devastating. There is, however, a proposed solution. The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) bill offers a pragmatic fix to the poverty that plagues America’s lower class, but the current proposition has some flaws. First, lets discuss the contentions that make up the original bill.

Intro: People of the middle class all know that the minimum wage of $7.25 is not sufficient to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. There is considerable evidence to show that the current generations comfortable lifestyles require a more luxurious price for standard living. The cost of living over the years has dramatically increased due to high consumer demands of products. As that being said, $7.25 is just not enough for a happy lifestyle, food, and the bills. There are many jobs that dislike or just can't afford paying high wages. Therefore, many employers hire less to save money. This causes a non-sufficient pay rate for comfortable living and high unemployment

The impact of the “Child Trust Account” policy would benefit low-income children. This policy requires the federal to create a saving account up to 20,000 dollars when the children are born. However, children from poorest family could eventually rise to 60,000 dollars. The federal will manage the account, increasing the interest leading to more money in the account. After the children are of age, they will be able to obtain this money. The “Federal Job Guarantee” policy will increase job employment for everyone eliminating racial inequality. This system will stabilize the economy benefiting all Americans. The employment pay yearly would be approximately 50,000 and with a decreasement of net expenses. These initiatives will be beneficial towards

Throwing more money at the problem will not fix the job situation and it will do nothing to encourage entrepreneurs to create more jobs or help people find jobs to feed their families. It says on the website for Connecticut department of labor that you have to “engage in an active search for work and make appropriate employer contacts in light of the labor market, and your skills and capabilities,” well how is this being recorded, how do you know these people are actively look and putting in effort to get back in the work force? Over 4 million Americans have been jobless for over 27 weeks or more and with 136,500 being our own Connecticut resisdents if you are fully unemployed, or partially unemployed and working part-time you can accept unemployment benifits, I can see why people are staying unemployed if they are getting free money from the state chances are they aren’t going to make that much working part-time or even minimune wage full time; and when those benifits run out benefits are 14- 20 weeks extended

There are also those who argue that the serious economic recovery we desperately need cannot occur until money is in the hands of the people. With more money to be made, the common, working people shall have the spending power necessary to pump life into the U.S. economy. Although there is plenty of wealth in America, for those who possess it, it is their tendency to hoard their wealth, or otherwise invest it. This stops the flow of money in the U.S. economy and further complicates the financial state of the nation. Just a few dollars more hourly could make dramatic improvements in the lives of the working poor. Every little bit helps to counter debt, inflation, and economic stagnation. It could be the move that brings an end to the recession.