Poverty and Personal Choice

1389 Words3 Pages

Do the poor in this country have a choice not to be poor? Do the less fortunate have the same access to opportunities as the middle and upper classes? Do government programs designed to help the impoverished actually keep them in the lower ranks? These are all difficult and controversial questions. Conservatives and Liberals constantly battle over these issues in our state and federal governments. Local and national news media provide limited insight to the root causes and effects of the nation’s poor. There is obviously no simple solution to resolve the plight of these often forgotten citizens. Most of us associate poor as being in a class below the poverty line. In fact there are many levels of poverty ranging from those with nothing, to those with enough to survive but too little to move up. I believe many of our nation’s poor are so by their own doing. I will share observations and personal experiences to support the argument that being poor often is a result of individual choice. One needs merely inspiration and perspiration to move up the socio-economic ladder in the United States. We live in the land of opportunity where anyone with the drive and determination to succeed often can.

Based on 2010 United States Census Bureau statistics, minorities living in inner cities with a high school diploma or lower education level have an average of one more child per household than their white, suburban, and college educated peers. The argument could be made that raising children carries a financial burden, so low income families deciding to have children would seem an unwise choice. So why does their population continue to grow knowing this? Based on additional demographic data provided by the 2010 United States Cens...

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...lanning, in the end I believe poverty is often a choice.

Works Cited

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2010. Us Department of Justice Census Bureau website. N.P. November 3, 2011.

Families and Living Arrangements. Us Department of Justice Census Bureau website. U.S. Census Bureau. March 2010.

The 2012 Statistical Abstract. Us Department of Justice Census Bureau website. U.S. Census Bureau. December 23, 2011.

Diana Kendall. “Framing Class, Vicarious Living and Conspicuous Consumption”. Colombo, “Rereading America”. Bedfords/St.Martin. Boston, New York, 2010. 330-348

Jean Anyon. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”. “Rereading America”. Bedfords/St.Martin. Boston, New York, 2010. 169-186

Richard Rodriguez. “The Achievement of Desire”. “Rereading America”. Bedfords/St.Martin. Boston, New York, 2010. 194-206

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