Why Do People Living In Poverty?

People living in poverty can be thought of as a “them” who can be easily ignored and forgotten; when, in reality, poverty can affect anyone. When people are living in poverty, sometimes it is not their fault. Often, unfortunate events that are out of someone’s control can set them up for failure. For example, the poverty rate for disabled adults from the age of 18-64 is 28.5%, while disabled 18-64 year olds only make up 7.7% of America’s population (Proctor, Semega, and Kollar 16). Therefore, poverty disproportionately affects disabled adults. The stories of those living in poverty are incredibly diverse, as Sasha Abramsky points out in The American Way of Poverty:

There are people who are poor because they have made bad choices, gotten

(qtd. in Rycroft 128)

In America, the goal of corporations is to maximize profits, while workers aspire to maximize earnings; these two desires conflict with each other. Because corporations control the means of production they have more control, power, and ability to achieve their goal of maximizing profits

(129). Workers do not have power, except for in numbers, which makes it easier for corporations to maximize profits by paying employees poverty wages rather than a living wage.

A key to ending the cycle of poverty, is educational equity. In America today, public education is unequal racially and socioeconomically (Honda 11). Internationally, America is not excelling academically. When looking closely at American student’s Program for

International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, students from affluent school districts are measuring up to the leading countries, however students from poor school districts and neighborhoods have significantly lower PISA scores; bringing the United States to an average academic ranking internationally (14). On a national level, the United States has large disparities between public schools across the country. In public schools located in areas brimming