Urban Poverty And The Urban Underclass Essay

More than 800 million people in the world are malnourished, 777 million of them are from the developing world (Raphel, S., 2014). Poverty is an issue that must be addressed to the population loud and clear or everyone will end up suffering. There are many families trying to survive and live from paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, there are some families that are unable to support himself or herself or any family member. One important key issue of poverty in the United States is inequality. Many Americans blame the poor people for their own fate but you should never judge a book by its cover. There can be many reasons why an individual or families end up in poverty. For example, low wage jobs, discrimination and social inequality, vulnerability to natural disasters, war and political instability. Another big issue we face today is child poverty. This is a very critical issue because these young children are our future. If we let these children live in poverty, there is a higher chance they will drop out of school, look for work in order to support their family, or give up in life.

The United States, a place where anyone can “pick themselves up by the bootstraps” and realize the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle. Well, for over 30 million Americans this is no longer possible. Though we live in the richest and most powerful country in the world there are many who are living under or at the precipice of the poverty level, “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty” (The Working Poor, 4). This translates to families of four making around 18,850$ a year. And as soon as they find work or move just slightly above that 18,850$ a year (which is still a meager and deprived way to

Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)

A cycle is evident in the effects of Institutional Racism; lack of education leads to no job or low income wages, which then proceeds to poor housing and poor medical care, which ultimately results in death. Richard Rothson of The American Prospect spoke on the situation occurring in Baltimore City. Recently the government adopted a restriction against black Americans purchasing houses in the same suburbs as white Americans. Federal housing subsidy policies going as far as to direct low income, black families to segregated neighbourhoods away from mid-class suburbs. When interviewed, Baltimore’s mayor claimed, “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce spread of communicable disease into white neighbourhoods, and to protect white values among white majority.” This set of circumstances is related to discrimination in political figures as well as no employment and lack of education. Failure in education, according to usnews.com, talks about how African-American children are at a disadvantage in school curriculums, leaving them improperly educated, which results in lack of employment. This revolves back to the housing crisis in Baltimore, furthermore providing the facts that when an African-American person isn’t hired from an employer, based on the idea of limited education factors, they are segregated to a low income wage community, which can often be proclaimed as

The issue of poverty in the United States seems to lie on the grounds of race education and family structure. As expected I found that educational levels paralleled poverty levels. Unexpected , research was found to prove that race did in fact play a substantial role in poverty. Family structure along with other influential factors either locked an individual into poverty or provided a means for escape from the continuing cycle. Other factors contributing to poverty was the location of homes or neighborhoods and the accessibility to better paying jobs.

American life was transformed in the 1960s from the start of the decade. The 1960s consisted of new rights and new understandings of freedom. The sixties consisted of rights for racial minorities to be involved in the mainstream of the American lifestyle. However, unsolved issues of urban poverty still existed. Women in the 1960s established a conversion in women’s status, for instance, women entered the paid workforce. America experienced a growth of conservative movements, consequently, the 1960s would confront judgment for social ill, crime and drug abuse and drug abuse as well as decline respect towards authority. In despite of crisis, America became a tolerant nation. The sixties are known as a decade of drastic change, rebellion, and backlash. Also, for the American individuals that came of age during the sixties, the generation known as the “Baby Boomers,” wanted to change the culture of their parents. Terry Anderson and Peter Clecak both present different judgment of the social activism of the 1960s. Terry H. Anderson, from the The Sea Change, implied that the sixties achieved a positive transformation within politics, society culture, and foreign power. Anderson believed that America became more democratic as well as comprehensive. (361) On the contrary, Peter Clecak, from The New Left, argued that radicals failed to revolutionize in the sixties and additionally became powerless against the dominant social order. (361) Although certain Americans opposed and judged

Many reforms in the UnitedStates have been passed to help fight against the “War on Poverty”; but it has not been effective in eradicating poverty in the U.S. There are about 46 million people who are living in impoverished conditions and poverty continues to be a social issue in this country (Heritage Foundation, 2011) In the beginning, our country was formed under the belief that “this land is the land of opportunity and if we worked hard enough the American Dream can be gained” (Schwarz, 1997). People immigrate to this country today in hopes of becoming rich so they could gain a better life. In spite of coming to this country for a better life, many are faced with the lack of skills and money to succeed. In the end, most will end

However, Wacquant brings the term “inner city” to light, breaking down its meaning: “black and poor.” Living in Chicago gives one an exemplary example of the term “inner city” meaning “poor, black ghettos.” The references to “inner city” schools being synonymous with “poor quality” and “mostly African American” are damaging to urban terminology and creating a predetermined perspective of those who call the “inner city” home. The “hypersegregation” of the city of Chicago is a topic within itself, but the institution of segregation is, without question, existent here. In addition, “inner city” is becoming a label which implies unavoidable incarceration.

The concept of the "working poor" has gained prominence in the post-welfare reform era. As welfare rolls shrunk, the focus shifted from the dependent poor to the working poor. It was obvious that without substantial outside support, even families with full-time low-wage workers were still earning less than the official poverty line. And while American society purports that anyone can prosper if they work hard enough, it became apparent that with inadequate opportunity or bad luck, a growing number of families could not attain the American dream, or even break the cycle of poverty. The new challenge for American social policy is to help the working poor lift themselves out of poverty. That's why progressives

In order to further support low-income communities and improve this population’s health the federal government needs to not only continue with the supplemental food programs they’ve already put in place, but enhance them by considering the barriers and address them. The government can intervene by integrating other components to the programs that further support people and help eliminate the main barrier by providing them direct access to grocery stores and healthier options. In order for government resources to be more effective in areas where there are limited grocery store options in the community, the government could begin by providing transportation services in areas where grocery stores are limited or if any at all. Providing transportation to those who are receiving government resources like WIC and SNAP would allow families to exhaust

The theoretical conversation Ralph explores in the book is isolation. He draws ideas from Wacqaunt and Wilson’s The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City. In the article, the central argument is there is an interrelated set of characteristics that corresponds to social-structural problems in the inner city and the process has triggered “hyper-ghettoization.” The evidences Wacquant and Wilson present are mainly statistical and anthropology data. The article explains many of the residents are isolated due to the social-structural, economic, and political issues that surround them. The residents being moved by

The federal government played a role in establishing and maintaining residential segregation in metropolitan areas. For example, Rothstein states that after the New Deal and World War II, federally funded public housing was explicitly and racially segregated (5). The projects were designated for either whites or blacks, later becoming increasingly black. Neighborhoods that were historically segregated still continue today with the very same characteristics – racially and economically homogeneity. Children who grow up in and attend schools in these neighborhoods encounter what Sherman refers to as “youth disconnection”. In essence, youth disconnection is the lack of exposure to important influences that help with human development. Sherman takes into account statistics about disconnected youth which include being twice as likely to live in poverty, three times as likely to leave high school without a diploma, half as likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and etc (“How Disadvantages Caused by Residential Segregation End Up Costing Billions”). How can students thrive in environments that are historically segregated and disadvantaged? Access to a better education along with other influences beneficial to development should to be decided based upon the location in which a student

In 2010, about 46.2 million people were considered poor. The nation’s poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent, whereas in 2009, 14.3 percent of people in America were living in poverty (Censky, 2011). That is an increase of 2.6 million people in 2010. In the United States, the federal poverty line – an absolute measure of annual income – is frequently used to determine who is categorized as poor (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). Currently the government defines the poverty line as an income of $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four (Censky, 2011). In sociology, poverty can be defined using two terms – relative deprivation and absolute deprivation. Relative deprivation is a comparison between people and social class. With

A social problem, is “a general factor that effects and damages society”. It can be used to describe an issue or a problem within a certain group of people or an area in the world. Examples of contemporary social problems today include anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. Poverty is an example of a social problem that exists all over the world, and to different extents. In the UK, poverty has effected at least a third of the population, as shown by the Office of National Statistics, providing evidence that it is a massive social problem in the country. Tameside has a big poverty problem. 1 in 4 children in Tameside are born into poverty, and workers in Tameside earn significantly less than other workers in the rest of the North-West area. In addition, Tameside has the largest proportion of people claiming unemployment benefits compared to the rest of the North West of England.

After reading Booth’s work on The Life and Labour of the People of London led me to construct my own investigation on poverty but in a provincial town so I can then find an applicable general conclusion for a smaller populated area.