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The effect of poverty on children
Poverty and child development
Poverty and child development
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Given the underlying and pertinent data from Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), in August of 2016 approximately 43 million Americans have been involuntarily forced on Food Stamps and SNAP taking into account their situation or circumstance of grappling with poverty. Moving up the social ladder for the poor is extremely difficult, strenuous, and arduous task especially if they are incapable because they are stymied by their own circumstances of growing up poor and do not retain the necessary resources to enable them to make a better living to guarantee a better lifestyle. However, in most cases these individuals are poor right from the start where they are at a disadvantage considering that poverty has compelled and force their hand,
bearing in mind that nearly one in eight Americans suffers from poverty where these people lack an adequate income to obtain basic necessities that are required to sustain an acceptable standard of living for shelter, clothing, food, education and health services because this type of helplessness is when a person lacks representation and choice. As a result, the poor are constrained by their situations having to make numerous sacrifices to ensure their survival and much more needs to be done to support the lower class in maintaining a sufficient standard of living. The underlying tenet of poverty also relates to social inequality because despite the reality of how affluent the United States society remains wealth is distributed much more unequally than income.
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
Since poverty affects a wide array of people, poverty has evolved into a very complex issue. And even though the government has passed legislature to try to ameliorate the situation, many of these means-tested measures like food stamps, have only been able to help the surface of poverty and fails to rip out the long roots poverty has grown throughout history. Poverty’s deep effects are seen especially in minorities as they struggle much more to leave a current situation that has been created by historical process. Even though government assistance like food stamps do help alleviate some of poverty’s burden, these measures fail to recognize the reality that many of the impoverished minority have undervalued homes or no homes at all and even if they can rent, that rent can be high enough to take up more than fifty-percent of their paychecks. Overall, poverty in America is a vastly complicated issue rooted throughout history. And even though the government has attempted to pass legislature to help provide relief from poverty, America still has yet to provide measures that target the roots of poverty and until then, the government assistance it does provide will only be superficial and fail to provide long-term solutions to a complicated
Why are some people poor and homeless, while others have so much money they literally
The Natural Support of African Americans in poverty is to lower food bills in families by cooking instead of buying fast foods. The culture of poverty “is perceived to be a worldview and ethos contributing to poor people staying in poverty.” (Rogers, 131) it is seen as people who are in poverty are the connection of their offspring who seem to also have a difficult time to move up higher in society. “Children learn from their parents that laziness is a way of life, as is receiving food stamps every month; children never gain the motivation to work their way...
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 African Americans held the highest poverty rate of 26%, with Hispanics holding the second highest rate at 24% (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). When comparing this to the poverty rates of Whites at 10% and Asians at 12% in 2014, we see that in America, racial and ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to experiencing poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In addition, discrimination is seen between genders among those living in poverty. Family households of a single adult are more likely to be headed by women and are also at a greater risk for poverty (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). In 2014, 30.6% of households headed by a single woman were living below the poverty line compared to 15.7% for households headed by a single male (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor, 2015). Many factors such as poor wages for women, pregnancy associations, and the increase of single-woman parented families have impacted the increase of women in poverty. Children are most harshly affected by poverty because for them the risks are compounded, as they lack the defenses and supports needed to combat the toxicity surrounding them. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21% of all U.S. children (73.6 million children) under 18 years old lived in poverty in 2014 (DeNavas-Walt & Proctor,
By making improvements to the Welfare System in America has become a way of life that has entrapped so many single and married households across the country. Statistics show that there were 108,592,000 people who are recipients of one or more means of the government benefit programs. The Census Bureau recorded by surveys over 101, 716,000 people who worked full time year around in 2011 which only allowed one member of the family to work year round. The system is meant to help low income families, however; they don’t want to be not allowed to grow by becoming more independent and have opportunities to rise above poverty. The quest to change the welfare system is to ensure the welfare and the rights of children, their parents and taxpayers are not ignored. Programs have been developed to ensure welfare recipients are employable and retained. These programs are in the forms of training, workshops, and education, as well as other services that will provide support as well as pride and self-sufficiency.
A single divorcee’ mother of two is working a minimum waged job that doesn’t pay life’s cost of survival. Not only does this mother have to take care of herself, she has children that need shelter, nourishment, and stability. In order for that to be possible, help is needed. Most people, majority is fathers, have too much pride to ask for help because of the image. Being on social welfare promotes the ego dropping image that one cannot provide for themselves or their family. But is image more important than the life itself? Children are dying of hunger or dehydration because their parents cannot afford decent meals or purified water. Children are dying from sickness because their parents cannot afford a home that protects them from the cold. Some of these parents are working forty hours a week or more for minimum wage and still cannot afford the necessities to live healthy. Some parents cannot find a job due to lack of qualification. The government has provided resources for people who are disadvantaged; however, there are still problems that need to be addressed. Social welfare isn’t a discouragement, it is a helping hand. There is no reason why lives should be shortened because of the inability to access governmental assistance. Social welfare benefits America as a whole because it serves as a crutch for the financially handicapped and provides motivation to work harder for a better lifestyle.
According to Sharon Hays in her book Flat Broke with Children (2013), she points the limited resources that exist for mothers and families like these. She mentions the various programs that currently do exist for these mothers such as SNAP, a program that aids in money for food as well as other helping with taxes such as the Earned Income Tax, TANF an aid for families in need, and Medicaid covers a limited amount of medical and dental expenses. Although such programs do exist, she emphasizes the requirements as well as the stereotype held for the recipient’s of these programs. These cash assistance programs aid a smaller amount of money than what realistically would be needed in order to feed or provide for a family. Now, to even be able to receive these scare resources requires mothers to have a low paying job or undergo many obstacles to obtain or maintain government help until the family is able to overcome their crisis. They are heavily criticized for receiving help and not being able to provide for their own and not fulfilling the American value of “self-reliance”. Women with these struggles are faced upon a situation where due to their circumstances, they cannot provide as much as the rest. If we were to
One of the most prevalent social problems in America, which also carries the most social stigma, is poverty. The documentary “The Line”, which was produced by Linda Midgett, discusses this issue and reveals that many people who live in poverty work incredibly hard to escape the vicious cycle. The fact of the matter is that no one chooses to live in poverty. Some people work two or three jobs to try and support their family, but still struggle paycheck to paycheck. Approximately “46 million Americans live in poverty” (The Line). This is a staggering statistic which should force people to open their eyes, and realize that people in poverty are not all addicts. They are not all people who have made bad choices. Many of them are hardworking people, who want
We can mitigate the fact that families are facing poverty by focusing on the environmental, interpersonal/social, and individual factors. Interpersonal and social risk factors associated with poverty is “food insufficiency, unstable housing, and lack of basic healthcare, low self-esteem, a decreased sense of control over one’s life, and feeling of helplessness, which in turn adversely affects child upbringing” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, pg. 28). In the community level, we can focus on reducing the risk of food insufficiency by supporting programs such as TANF, WIC and SNAP which can assist many families that are below the poverty line. In the environmental level, unstable housing can be reduced by physical safety, which can be brought by opening
When analyzing children growing up in poverty a lot of factors come into play such as their physical, psychological and emotional development. To grow up in poverty can have long term effect on a child. What should be emphasized in analyzing the effects of poverty on children is how it has caused many children around the world to suffer from physical disorders, malnutrition, and even diminishes their capacities to function in society. Poverty has played a major role in the functioning of families and the level of social and emotional competency that children are able to reach. Children in poverty stricken families are exposed to greater and emotional risks and stress level factors. They are even capable of understanding and dealing with their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Some of the implications of poverty include educational setbacks, issues with social behaviors and hindrances in psychological and physical development. Poverty deprives children of the capabilities needed to survive, develop and prosper in society. Studies have shown that the income status of a household and even the neighborhoods in which they reside can affect the amount of readily available resources needed to sustain a healthy child. This essay will examine the psychological and physical effects of poverty on children. The psychological aspect will include a look at behavioral problems in children, depression, chronic stress, and conduct disorders such as ADHD. Poverty is known to decrease the amount of psychological and physical capabilities in children which can have long term adverse effects on their wellbeing.
Some major contributions from the government to assist the poor, consist of numerous organizations to not only feed the poor; but also shelter the poor. “The 1977 Food Stamp Act states that in order to promote the general welfare, [it is the policy of Congress] to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's population” (Jolliffe et al. 569). Food Stamp Benefits have been functioning since the mid to late 1900's to help feed the less fortunate portion of society. The Food Stamp Benefits help to “raise nutritional well-being of low-income households” (Jolliffe et al. 569). Food Stamp Benefits guarantee a food income for the poor in order to ensure the health of these individuals. Government organizations also include shelter homes for poverty ridden families. Since 1981 government run organizations have been helping shelter thousands of families and tens of thousands of individuals (Heavens). Homeless shelters such as this, give a roof over the heads of thousands of individuals who cannot afford one of their own. Such government organizations are arra...
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an