In Conley’s article, there are 2 families as examples, the Joneses, a white family, and the Smiths, a black family. Both of them have the inadequacy of relying on income alone, the Smiths earned $16,000 for a year, while the Joneses earned $12,000 and were defined as “poor”. As Conley mentioned, the examples are “hypothetically embellished that may exaggerate differences” (Conley, p4), there are lots of differences between these two families, like the Smiths divorced after they had their children for several years, the Joneses had their own house with the help of their parents, while the Smiths had to rent house for living.
However, the examples tell us that “something is gravely wrong with the way we are measuring poverty in the United States”
Federman, M. et al. What Does it Mean to be Poor in America? 1996 (2009). Pp. 296-310
Journalist, Patricia Cohen, in her New York Times article, writes that millions have managed to lift themselves out of the poverty in the past year. Cohen’s purpose is to inform and convince readers that indeed poverty levels have declined despite that millions across the country are still heavily affected by the 2008 Recession. She adopts a sympathetic and informative tone in order to transmit upon her readers the idea that the economy is not perfect but it is in fact improving. Cohen establishes a strong ethos by including anecdotes of success stories, she supports her argument with a significant use of logos through statistical figures as well as graphs in order to assure her readers that unemployment has definitely declined.
In recent years, the number of children whose families fall under the line of poverty has risen at an alarming rate. Crosson-Tower (2013) postulated a reason for this increase when she said, “The recent weakening economy, a higher unemployment rate, unprecedented numbers of home foreclosures and a decline in the safety net for children and their families have resulted in a gradual continuing increase in children living in extreme poverty” (p. 57). Apparently, nearly every aspect of the United States’ crumbling economy affects a family’s ability to meet basic needs. The rise in single parent, mother headed families has not helped poverty statistics because of the lower earning potential of women. A major reason so many children liv...
The poverty that poor black Americans experience is often different from the poverty of poor whites. It is more isolating and esoteric. It fans out of family homes and inundates the entire neighborhood; the streets, the schools, the grocery stores, the community centers. A poor black family, in short, is much more likely than a poor white family to live in a neighborhood where many other families are poor. Creating what is called the "double standard" of poverty. “The sense of privilege that he [Marks], a multi-generation white class guy has to share his wisdom with all of those ‘poor black socially-orphaned children out there in the West Phillies of the world’ is astounding” (DNLee 256). Assuming that those children have no direction is a misconception that many white privileged Americans assume. And that assumption is why the life chances and opportunities of people of color in the United States are limited as compared to whites. Place continues to be a defining characteristics of the opportunity structure. Children growing up in more privileged neighborhoods often ponder what they will do when they grow up; as were poor children ponder on if they will even have the opportunity to grow up. The privileged are so blind that even they do not realize it, and they do not see that others are not privileged. As Cinderella’s privileges and opportunities were taken from her, her chance at the ‘good life’ was too. The element of the good life, however defined, is only accessible to those who are
Edelman, Peter. "Poverty in America: Why Can't We End It?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 July 2012. Web. 15 May 2014.
As stated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “the test of our progression is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Many people may agree with this statement considering that the United States is such a wealthy country and in 2012, 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States and 15% of all Americans and 21.8% of children under age eighteen were in poverty.The honest truth is that many people do not know the conditions this group of people must live in on a daily basis because of the small number of people who realize the struggle there is not a great amount of service. In the article Too stressed for Success, the author Kevin Clarke asks the question “What is the cost of being poor in America?” and follows the question by explaining the great deals of problems the community of poverty goes through daily by saying, “Researchers have long known that because of a broad reduction in retail and other consumer choices experienced by America's poor, it is often simply more expensive to be poor in the United States.
John Steinbeck, famous author of The Grapes of Wrath, once said, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” This quote, while fairly amusing, brings up a vital subject--class mobility. Can people in poverty still be rags to riches stories? The book Class Matters reports that class mobility has most likely decrease and that it takes five generations for a family class status to change. In Yakima this poses a very grim problem because 34% of Yakima residents line under the poverty line. And of those 55.9% are single mothers, just like Angela Whitiker (Citydata). That is why Angela Whitiker’s story is so central to not only the world but to
The issue of poverty in the United States is complex, and no one root cause is sufficient to explain why, in a wealthy developed nation, such poverty should exist. However, a principal factor which may contribute to the nation’s poverty lies in problems with the U.S. labor market. According to Freeman, while the U.S. has witnessed a “substantial growth in GDP per capita” (20), only a relatively small portion of the population, the wealthiest Americans, has seen the benefits of that rise in GDP. Many poor and working class Americans do not have access to this wealth and receive little actual benefit from the nation’s increased wealth and prosperity. While productivity has increased in recent years, the gains from the nation’s economic growth has not increased the real wages and benefits for U.S. workers (Freeman 20). The U.S. labor market fails to distribute gains to low wage workers, resulting in their poverty, which in turn, puts their children at a higher risk for being in poverty themselves.
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...
Defining who qualifies as poor is the first problem. Researchers alike have all created their own definitions of the poor. Ken Auletta, a journalist defines the poor as a group of individuals who share common attributes such as high school dropouts, delinquents, and the homeless (Ricketts, & Sawhill, 1988). Psychologist Kenneth Clark and political scientist Richard Nathan describe the poor as those who share the same status and are involved in a number of characteristics that are against dominant culture and behavior. Finally, sociologist William J. Wilson views the poor as people who lack training and skills, experience prolonged periods of joblessness, engage in criminal activity, and have a dependency on welfare. As a result, most of America has the conception that the poor can be characterized by the status and behaviors that deviate from dominant culture such as joblessness, delinq...
Several citizens in America may not empathize with many social conflicts which transpire in America. Unfortunately, when poverty is mentioned people of diverse gender, race/ethnic, and age can relate to poverty in America. Although several societies have not experienced the undesirable measures of relative or absolute poverty; several people know poverty exist through many channels, such as the media, social networking, history and charities.
According to the Children Defense Fund 1 in 13 children will live in extreme poverty in the United States and a family of four is extremely poor if their income is below 10,000 or half of the official poverty line. (http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/census/census-2007-child-poverty-data.pdf,). Despite being wealthy the U.S. . has the highest rate of child poverty among all the other countries. Poor children are more likely to go hungry and are less likely to be read to during their early years. They are less likely to have health insurance and needed care. Poor children are more likely to start school behind their affluent peers and are less likely to graduate high school. They are more likely to grow up as poor adults and become involved in the criminal justice system. A family of four's annual income must be lower than 23,000 to reach child poverty. (http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/state-of-americas-children/documents/2014-SOAC_child-poverty.pdf(). Children in single parent homes were four times more likely to be poor than children in two adult families. Almost 70 percent of all children live with two parents.(http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data.) The south has the highest child poverty rate with 1 in 4 children compared to 1 in 5 children in the rest of the country. Growing up in child poverty can be a major effect on a healthy development for a child. Poverty and stress about finances can have an effect on children's cognitive development and their ability to learn. It can contribute to behavioral problems, social and emotional problems, and poor health. Living in poverty affects how a chil...
Wilson, William J. "Jobless Poverty." The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender. Ed. David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelenyi. 2md ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2011. 159-69. Print.
Research prior to SEF’s 2013 findings, such as Brook-Dunn’s 1997 work, found that one in five American children were either currently living in families, or had lived in families in which cash income failed to exceed official poverty thresholds. For a small minority of children, 4....
Poverty in America is measured using thresholds and guidelines that are updated each year so that we have a more accurate picture of who is in need. Using these standards it is then decided who is impoverished. According to the Institute for Research on Poverty (2013) a family of four, who makes less than $23,492 in a year, are considered poor. There are numerous federal programs provided by the government that are designed to help those who are in need. Some of these programs provide food stamps, free lunches, Medicaid, Head Start, and rent assistance. Although these programs are helpful to people who need them they do not entirely prevent children from the consequences of being poor.