Poverty in America: Government Welfare Programs are the Solution

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“What is poverty? Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (The World Bank, 2009).

People are deemed poor if their incomes are insufficient to obtain the basic necessitates for themselves or their families. The most common and stereotypic explanation of poverty is the poor cause their own poverty because in America anything is possible if you want it. This “blame the poor” point of view is does not apply to all poverty stricken, a big misperception is that the poor do not work. Not only are most poor people able and more than willing to work hard and they do so when given the chance. The fact is nearly half of the poor populations of working age do work even if it is minimal and millions of them work full-time. The decline in wages is very hard on families with dependent children. Because of changes in our economic structure availability of well-paying blue collar jobs in manufacturing companies is limited. Most industries are outsourcing to other countries to minimize labor costs and using machines to replace workers. Therefore younger adults, particularly those who have very little education are forced to work in service oriented jobs for lower pay, no benefits and no chance for promotion. Because minimum wage does not keep up with inflation, it is nearly impossible to earn enough to keep families out of poverty.

According to our text, you have to understand the prices for human and...

... middle of paper ...

...hould not be limited in the case of poverty. Those in poverty need the helping hands of the government to get on their feet to become contributor of a successful economy.

REFERENCES

CliffsNotes.com. Causes and Effects of Poverty. June 1, 2011

Nilsen, S. R. (2007). GAO. Retrieved June 1, 2011 from POVERTY IN AMERICA Consequences for Individuals and the Economy: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07343t.pdf.

Sharp, A., Register, C., & Grimes, P. (2010). ECO 405: Economics of social issues: 2010 custom edition. (19th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Signorile, C. (2007). Identifying the Root Causes of Poverty. Retrieved May 31, 2011 from Constitutionally Right: http://constitutionallyright.com/2007/07/13/identifying-the-root-causes-of-poverty/.

Web, P. (2009). Understanding Poverty. Retrieved May 31, 2011 from The World Bank, Poverty: http://go.worldbank.org/rqbdctuxw0

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