Poverty in the United States
analytical Essay
1697 words
Many reforms in the UnitedStates have been passed to help fight against the “War on Poverty”; but it has not been effective in eradicating poverty in the U.S. There are about 46 million people who are living in impoverished conditions and poverty continues to be a social issue in this country (Heritage Foundation, 2011) In the beginning, our country was formed under the belief that “this land is the land of opportunity and if we worked hard enough the American Dream can be gained” (Schwarz, 1997). People immigrate to this country today in hopes of becoming rich so they could gain a better life. In spite of coming to this country for a better life, many are faced with the lack of skills and money to succeed. In the end, most will end up in unskilled labor jobs that can barely support their families. Poverty continues to be a growing social issue because people have the “ inability to provide necessities like clothes, healthcare, and shelter” (Heritage Foundation, 2011) to help themselves and their family; therefore, many sacrifices have to be made to insure their survival. Yet many reforms made to help people living in poverty are based “off of outdated statistics” (Henslin, 2014, p.276) and are not enough to help the lower class maintain a sufficient standard of living. Poverty relates to conflict theory since the poor are struggling just to get by. Government programs such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), housing assistance, and food stamps provided by the government are not enough to help the poor gain social mobility. In the 1960s, the government drew a poverty line which determined how the lower class may benefit from government aid. Since t “2008, th... ... middle of paper ... ...lusions.html Stewart, A. (2009, 23). NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. The Culture Of Poverty : NPR. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102246990 Sullivan, M. (2007, 7). Home / UCLA Newsroom. Working Families Rely Heavily on Retrieved February 6, 2014, from http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Working-Families-Rely-Heavily-on-8083.aspx?RelNum=8083 Weiss, L. (2009, 10). Center for American Progress. Unmarried Women Hit Hard by Poverty | Center for American Progress. Retrieved January 19, 2014, from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2009/09/10/6683/unmarried-women-hit-hard-by-poverty/ Welcome to CHSBS! | Central Michigan University. Karl Marx. Retrieved January 27, 2014, from http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/fattah/COURSES/modernthought/marx.htm
In this essay, the author
- Explains that many reforms in the united states have been passed to fight against the "war on poverty" but it has not been effective in eradicating poverty.
- Explains that president johnson declared an "unconditional war against poverty" in 1964 and continues today. without these reforms, the population of poverty will triple.
- Argues that class conflict is a classic struggle between capitalists and workers because there has always been an opposition between the two social classes in the us.
- Explains that in the american society, the population is separated by social class, which distinguishes a person by their education, where they live, and socioeconomic ladder.
- States that feminization of poverty has become common since "mother headed families" are common. according to center for american progress, single women make up 59% of people living in poverty today.
- Argues that conflict theory relates to poverty because being poor limits success for people who want to live a better life in the future.
- Cites shah, a. (2011, 12), global issues: social, political, economic, and environmental issues that affect us all.
- Argues that the government's poverty line is flawed because it assumes how much a family spends and does not accurately include family resources.
- Argues that people fall into poverty due to the culture of poverty, which is the belief that behaviors of a subculture are responsible for people to continue living in poverty.
- Cites biddle, b.j., berliner, d.c. and cauthen, n.k.
- Explains that barack obama's 'fight' to end poverty: rhetoric and reality is published in social science quarterly.
- Cites schwarz, j.e., stewart, a. and sullivan, m.
- Cites weiss, l. (2009, 10). center for american progress. unmarried women hit hard by poverty.
Related
- analytical
- explanatory
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- Poverty and Ethicsanalytical essayPoverty: a never ending cycle of American disappointment. There are many reasons why poverty is so prominent: the corrupt government, education systems, the never-ending circle, the materialized world, and the morality of it all. Throughout time, people have stumbled among the dilemma of helping or ignoring. We often stumble on the questions, “How do we fix this issue? Can we? Would we?”. Everyone has his or her own opinion on the topic, but does that change the morality of it? Poverty is a very controversial issue in America, but when broken down into causes and solutions it is actually very simple.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that poverty is a never-ending cycle of american disappointment. it's caused by corrupt government, education systems, materialized world, and morality.
- Analyzes how the circle of poverty is one of the main issues in today's society.
- Analyzes how peter singer introduces ethical and moral questions like this in "singer's solution to poverty".
- Opines that in order to end poverty, america must find the sources, initiate solutions, and undergo sacrifices, whether willing or not.
- Cites fitzgerald, scott, guggenheim, davis, and shipler, david k. the working poor: invisible in america.
528 wordsRead More - Poverty Policy In The United Statesexplanatory essayAs many of us know, poverty is a nationwide problem. There are many causes to this, some may include, broken families, and drug or alcohol addiction. For approximately twenty five years, one of the biggest arguments fought had been about poverty policy. Of course we all had our own opinions however, discussing this problem has led to people splitting up into two groups, those who support the poor and those
In this essay, the author
- Explains that poverty is a nationwide problem, with many causes, including broken families, drug or alcohol addiction. for twenty-five years, one of the biggest arguments fought had been about poverty policy.
70 wordsRead More - Inequities in Access to Quality Programs: A Detrimental Factor in Continued Strife Within the Urban Underclassanalytical essayThe socioeconomic status for those who are impoverished in the United States is inherently poor and has not seen marked improvements over the last 30 years. Rather the situation has grown increasingly dire with continued and extreme inequities. Communities within the urban setting suffer from poverty levels much greater than those in rural communities. Mona Scott (2012), explains that minority groups suffer from the effects of the inequity of poverty. African American communities experience an unemployment rate of 15 percent, whereas white communities have an unemployment rate of 10 percent (p. 177). Great strides must be taken in order to reverse the negative effects of poverty overall, and the magnified negative impact poverty has in the urban community. Since the early 1980’s, there has been a steady decline in the overall welfare within the urban condition. According to Paul Peterson (1991), in 1964 President Lyndon Johnson waged a “War on Poverty” passing legislation with a strong vision of ending poverty. Conversely, the war was funded with little monetary allotments and feasted on an ideology of social community support and few sporadic ineffective educational and employment training programs. This vision based on a renewed national pride was honorable, the poverty level in the United States was at its lowest in recorded history sitting at 11 percent (p. 619). However honorable the intent was at the time, the only demographic the welfare policies had a long term positive effect on the elderly population was. The availability of affordable medical access and monetary support has allowed for sustained low poverty rates amongst the elderly (p. 619). The lack of sustainable long term strategies, effective in lower...
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the socioeconomic status of those who are impoverished in the united states is inherently poor and has not seen marked improvements over the last 30 years.
- Explains that urban underclasses are separated by race and live in cramped, unacceptable housing. without a solid role model, children grow up without boundaries and social conscience.
- Explains that education systems in poor urban areas are lacking in basic fundamental learning resources. technology is limited to the available resources of the over-taxed school budgets, which leads to dysfunction and disengagement.
- Explains that the non-white urban underclass' employment opportunities have continued to shrink due to competition with white job seekers, unconscious racism, and the lack of education or transportation.
- Argues that working within our current system of laws and rules will not allow every american system to achieve the american dream of home ownership.
- Explains that the distribution of wealth focused on tax collection of property taxes will be collected at the state level in one fund and then redistributed to each school based on the number of students.
- Argues that employment opportunities must be returned to the united states by changing the current tax laws which allow for excessive tax breaks.
- Opines that american citizens have made this country great, corporations enjoy great gains due to the purchasing power of the american citizen, while the urban underclass is in a system that by and large has been allowed to remain stagnant.
- Explains massey, d. s., american apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass. american journal of sociology, 96(2), 329-357.
- Analyzes peterson, p. e., and riley, c. (2011). many companies pay no income taxes, study finds.
- Explains the united states department of commerce's income, poverty and health insurance coverage.
2015 wordsRead More - What Is The Minimum Welfare By Barbara Ehrenreich Essayanalytical essayBarbara Ehrenreich wrote this book to explore the current welfare reform, which assured a job, can lead to a better life. She was set on discovering how specifically women, could live and advance on a minimum wage or below salary. She went from Florida, to Maine, to Minnesota working as a maid, nursing home aid, and sales clerk at Wal-Mart Ehrenreich quickly realized her one waitressing job wasn’t enough to support herself, so she acquired a second waitressing job just to discover she couldn’t do both. She was living in hotels, trailer parks, and surviving on fast food. She described how she had an advantage over most minimum wage women; she was healthy, had a car, and didn’t have children to support. She saw other women living in their cars, thinking they weren’t eating lunch cause they were on a diet, but rather didn’t have the money for food. Ehrenreich discovered how hard it was to live and support just one person’s basic expenses on minimum wage; that none of the work was unskilled, it all required some form of emotional or physical energy. She exposed the harsh tr...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes barbara ehrenreich's book to explore the current welfare reform, which assured a job, can lead to better life.
- Analyzes how ehrenreich struggled through her low-wage jobs just to keep her head above water. she discovered the stereotypes associated with the lower class are just not true.
- Analyzes how ehrenreich demonstrated the failure of our society and welfare program. she found it nearly impossible to provide for herself, let alone a family.
- Opines that if i were president, i would propose a new welfare and minimum wage system that would allow for those below the poverty line the ability to live comfortably and move up in society.
582 wordsRead More - A Minimum Wage Increase Will Stimulate the Economyanalytical essayWicks-Lim, Jeannette. “The Working Poor.” New Labor Forum (Murphy Institute). 21.3 (2012): 17-25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that president roosevelt endorsed the federal minimum wage law in 1938 while the great depression was at its utmost insolvent position.
- Analyzes how neal asbury, an american entrepreneur, writes "raising the minimum wage brings minimum benefits" to express how a hike in wages will increase unemployment levels.
- Argues that increasing the minimum wage will lead to better off results concerning market activity. nader presents two studies to prove the effectiveness of a rise in pay.
- Analyzes how increasing wages will benefit the economy and those who rely on governmental assistance to survive out of restricted pay.
- Explains that a higher minimum wage will help individuals live without government assistance and survive on their own.
- Argues that increasing the minimum wage will benefit those employed rather than cutting back on their jobs. emily martin and arjun sethi present a longitude, precise study to undermine critic's claim for not agreeing to raise wages.
- Argues that an upsurge in minimum wages will stimulate the economy and give the working poor a sense of relief having the power to support themselves.
- Cites asbury, neal, martin, emily, and arjun sethi. "equal pay day: raising the minimum wage will help women---and the economy."
1329 wordsRead More - David Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible In Americaanalytical essayTHE phrase ''working poor'' doesn't carry much weight in this fractious political season. It slips by in a campaign speech, with nothing much to grab onto as it passes. It suffers from a kind of blunt-edged simplicity -- a collision of enormous, rounded terms that, by the lights of American exceptionalism, should not be joined. Both political parties quietly agree that it is an ugly, unsettling combination -- that any American who works steadily should not have to suffer the barbed indignities of poverty. But Americans do -- millions of them. There are 35 million people in the country living in poverty. Most of the adults in that group work nowadays; many of them work full time. And while there are heavy concentrations of African-Americans and white single women in the mix, the group is every bit as diverse, and diffuse, as the nation is.
In this essay, the author
- Recommends that readers stick with shipler's seminal book, ''harvest of shame', because he deftly shows how government crackdown on illegal immigrants creates "migration within the migration."
- Analyzes how shipler threads a glowing filament: the telling acts of kindness, so often just small offerings, that lift both giver and receiver.
- Analyzes how david shipler's new book, "the working poor: invisible in america," tackles the unwieldy subject of race, class, and opportunity.
- Analyzes how shipler's book, "sins of the fathers," explores the impact of violence on the lives of struggling women.
- Analyzes how shipler's underlying mission is identical to that of the narrative stylists who toil among america’s underclass.
1486 wordsRead More - Poverty in the United Statesopinion essayIt certainly seems peculiar how so much disparity exists among the haves and have-nots in the country that leads the free world. The high level of poverty in the United States coupled with the disparaging rates of income are at times hard to comprehend. How can a country of such great wealth and power also be a country of vast poverty? Poverty will always be evident in the United States to some extent. However, minimizing poverty and income inequality will be conducive to the well being of the United States.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that minimizing poverty and income inequality will be conducive to the well-being of the united states.
- Explains why the united states has so many people poverty stricken. some blame the impoverished themselves while others blame wealthy, the economic system, and other facets of society.
- Analyzes how people are overcome by the desire for instant gratification, which causes them to quench their yearnings by obtaining what they want.
- Argues that instant gratification is evident in the poverty stricken population of the united states, and that society needs to create programs that teach the impoverished about the benefits of delayed
- Opines that the education system in the united states has failed many people and, for lack of better term, destined people to poverty.
- Opines that government programs and organizations need to be more oriented on the individual instead of making decisions based on large groups of people, which lacks individualistic detail.
- Argues that individualization of the strapped will lead to them leaving the status of impoverished.
- Opines that marriage at a later age enables young people to acquire skills or accumulate savings before setting up families. the incentive of better quality of life should lead the population out of poverty.
- Explains that consumption is detrimental to the impoverished because they are still purchasing unnecessary goods such as smartphones, expensive sneakers, and expensive clothes. to get out of poverty, one must save money.
- Opines that high poverty and income inequality exist due to apathy and disengagement with reality. the problems are best corrected through teaching efforts focused on job training, further education, delayed gratification, emphasis on marrying later in life, and control of consumption.
886 wordsRead More - Poverty in the United Statesexplanatory essayPoverty in the United States Poverty is defined by Webster says the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. The most common measure of poverty in the U.S. is called the poverty threshold. This measure determines the lack of food and needs commonly taken for granted. The federal poverty threshold for a family of four is approximately $ 23,550 dollars a year in 2013. Many people will have at some point lived below the poverty level for at least a year according to the government.
In this essay, the author
- Defines poverty as one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. the poverty threshold determines the lack of food and needs commonly taken for granted.
- Explains the effects of poverty on the united states, including higher crime rates, alcohol and substance abuse, poor housing, and frequent illnesses.
- Explains that poverty exposes people to bad luck such as job loss, family death, depression, and illnesses. parents who are struggling just to put food on the table tend to not have time to spend quality time with their children.
- Explains that structural functionalism suggests that society as a whole is an organized well-balanced institution.
517 wordsRead More - Poverty in the United Statesopinion essayPoverty is one of the problems we face in our world, but I am focusing on some of the poverty problems we are facing here in America. There are over 40 million people in the United States that wake up every day not knowing where their next meal will come from or if they will even have a meal. I would like to share some facts about poverty and ideas to prevent poverty in the hopes that we can make a difference and help the lives of those in poverty.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that poverty is one of the problems we face in our world, but they want to share some facts about poverty and ideas to prevent poverty in hopes of making a difference and helping the lives of those in poverty.
- Explains that 1 out of 7 people are living in poverty in the u.s. over 7.5% of us families live under the poverty line, and over 27.4% live twice below it.
- Explains that over 750,000 children are neglected or abused, and over 800,000 live in foster care. education will not solve poverty, but it is definitely a good start.
- Opines that there are many ways to improve the lives of disabled and uneducated poor people, such as the salvation army and goodwill.
- Opines that there are many ways to reduce the amount of poor people in the us. charities and fundraisers may not seem like a lot, but they start to add up.
523 wordsRead More - Poverty in Americaopinion essayThe sociological approach toward social problems is different from many social science studies. Sociology connects with social problems which are local, or global; as well as, social problems discovered in individuals, and groups. Equally important the sociological study measures the effect of people and society. “As a social science, sociology offers an objective and systematic approach to understanding the causes of social problems.” (Leon-Guerrero, 2011, pp. 5-6) Unfortunately some social problems remain more significant than other social problems. Subsequently due to the danger and, or seriousness it may cause to some, or many people in society. (Crone, 2011, p. 7)
In this essay, the author
- Explains the sociological approach to social problems is different from many social science studies. sociology connects with local, or global, and measures the effect of people and society.
- Explains that relative poverty in america affects many people in different groups, such as race/ethnicity, age and gender.
- Opines that there was an awful employment obstruction for many americans. in 2007, thousands of americans who occupied employment with various occupational industries were forced to leave their jobs.
- Compares the poverty rate of 13.2 percent in 2008 with the lowest of 11.3% in 2000, demonstrating the increase of poverty within an 8 year period.
- Explains that relative poverty is being addressed by society through rallies, and protest from citizens and activist in the united states.
- Describes the concepts relevant to poverty, such as inequality, income, life chances, and family.
- Opines that the inequality gap between the rich and the poor will continue. both lifestyles are in separate classes.
680 wordsRead More