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Impact of poverty on communities
Abstract on poverty in america
Effects of poverty on the community
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In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
The people that David Shipler interviewed are the type of people seen every day working at restaurants, Wal-Mart, and gas stations. They do not fit into the prejudice description of mooching welfare recipients. They are people on the edge of the poverty line that are affected by a multitude of issues that snowball into a lifetime of a constant debt and crisis. Shipler studies these working po...
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...elp the working middle class from falling into poverty or to help the working poor rise out of poverty. Furthermore the working poor themselves lack the knowledge and power to demand reform. David Shipler says it best when he writes, “Relief will come, if at all, in an amalgam that recognizes both the society’s obligation through government and business, and the individual’s obligation through labor and family —and the commitment of both society and individual.” (Shipler 5786-5788) It is time for America to open its eyes and see the invisible working poor.
Works Cited
Shipler, David K. The Working Poor: Invisible in America (Vintage). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, 2008.
“The American Dream: Out of Reach?” America Press 10/3/2011: Pages. Vol. 205 Issue 9, p6-6. 8/9
Zalan, Kira. “Pushing for Hope and Change.” U.S. News Digital Weekly (4/20/2012)
David K. Shipler in his essay At the Edge of Poverty talks about the forgotten America. He tries to make the readers feel how hard is to live at the edge of poverty in America. Shipler states “Poverty, then, does not lend itself to easy definition” (252). He lays emphasis on the fact that there is no single universal definition of poverty. In fact poverty is a widespread concept with different dimensions; every person, country or culture has its own definition for poverty and its own definition of a comfortable life.
In the piece “Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich several claims about poverty are made. At the time the piece was published in 2001, many Americans failed to accept the reality in the growing complications of poverty in the country. At that time there was not a wide variety of help for those on the poverty line. Ehrenreich embraces this idea, “There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of special costs” (155). The poor commonly find themselves in minimum wage paying jobs, with no added benefits and harsh working standards. For many, it is difficult to overcome these conditions, especially when life provides its own burdens. Ehrenreich shows the example of her coworker Marianne’s boyfriend, and how he was laid off because of the “special costs”. A cut on his foot caused him to miss work, a low paying job and lack of benefits preventing him from providing the proper prescribed antibiotics (155). Since then the affordability of help for those on the poverty line has improved. The passing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, mandated that all citizens must have healthcare coverage. A marketplace was
In her unforgettable memoir, Barbara Ehrenreich sets out to explore the lives of the working poor under the proposed welfare reforms in her hometown, Key West, Florida. Temporarily discarding her middle class status, she resides in a small cheap cabin located in a swampy background that is forty-five minutes from work, dines at fast food restaurants, and searches all over the city for a job. This heart-wrenching yet infuriating account of hers reveals the struggles that the low-income workers have to face just to survive. In the except from Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich uses many rhetorical strategies to illustrate the conditions of the low wage workers including personal anecdotes of humiliation at interviews, lists of restrictions due to limited
People who work hard enough become successful and build a good life for themselves and their family. Millions of Americans and others who admire America have believed this for generations. However, is this still true? Brandon King debates his interpretation of the American Dream in his published work, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” During his essay, the speaker highlights how important the American Dream is to the economy and providing a distance from inequality. The speaker emphasizes his belief that the American Dream is still alive within America and that people must work hard to achieve it. When discussing the American Dream, King will agree that the idea is alive and thriving in the minds of Americans; yet, I argue that the idea is on hold within American society due to lack of upward social independence and economic mobility.
The prospect of the welfare state in America appears to be bleak and almost useless for many citizens who live below the poverty line. Katz’s description of the welfare state as a system that is “partly public, partly private, partly mixed; incomplete and still not universal; defeating its own objectives” whereas has demonstrates how it has become this way by outlining the history of the welfare state which is shown that it has been produced in layers. The recent outcomes that Katz writes about is the Clinton reform in 1996 where benefits are limited to a period of two years and no one is allowed to collect for more than five years in their lifetime unless they are exempted. A person may only receive an exemption on the grounds of hardship in which states are limited to granting a maximum of 20% of the recipient population. The logic behind this drastic measure was to ensure that recipients would not become dependent upon relief and would encourage them to seek out any form of employment as quickly as possible. State officials have laid claim to this innovation as a strategy that would “save millions of children from poverty.” However, state officials predict otherwise such as an increase in homelessness, a flooding of low-waged workers in the labour market, and decreased purchasing power which means less income from tax collections. The outcomes of this reform appear to be bleak for many Americans who reside below the poverty line. How does a wealthy country like America have such weak welfare system? Drawing upon Katz, I argue that the development of the semi-welfare state is a result of the state taking measures to ensure that the people do not perceive relief as a right and to avoid exploiting the shortfalls of capitalism ...
“Workers Make Appeal to Taxpayers,” also follows Andrew Olson, a McDonald 's worker who makes $8.60 an hour, and his fiance who makes minimum wage in their experience under the poverty line. “Their salaries are so meager [...] that they rely on food stamps and Medicaid to get by,” says Kelly about Olson’s current living status, a lifestyle most Americans involuntarily live. Aside from the benefits wreaked by business owners and taxpayers, the workers living on poor salaries prove as the most positively and heavily affected; the three point nine percent of working citizens treated unfairly by big businesses. “Workers Make Appeal to Taxpayers” concludes with a quote from Olson, “Just because I work in fast food, does that mean I should have to just scrape by in
Shipler, David K. The Working Poor : Invisible In America /n.p.: New York : Vintage Books, 2005. Print.
In David Shiplers’ The Working Poor, he explores the life of the forgotten people of America. He listened to the voices of those who are a victim of either circumstance, or their own created misfortune. The books shows the stories behind the working poor’s tired eyes, and wrinkled faces. It brings a whole new light to the underbelly of America. It takes off the blindfold of ignorance that society wears. In David Shiplers’ The Working Poor he shows the barriers that hindered the working poor from escaping the maze of poverty.
Poverty is a tremendous problem in the United States. Unfortunately, many of the families who are living in poverty have much more difficulty finding good jobs than those who are not. In The Working Poor, by David Shipler, there are many different circumstances that cause people to get to that point. Many of those in poverty have too many barriers in their way for them to be able to rise above the poverty line and support themselves. Some circumstances that cannot be avoided like disabilities or being born into a poor household can create biases that make it more difficult to get employment. Seeing what causes many to become impoverished and how some people were able to rise above the poverty line may be beneficial to others and possibly prevent
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler makes its readers aware of the seriousness of American poverty and the condition of the lower class in American society by providing details and insight from their of point of view. Looking at issues of irresponsibility, greed, and fear of success the Working Poor gives an accurate presentation of the less wealthy in America. Mainly leaving its readers depressed and conscious to others hardship’s in life with a sense of appreciation that things are not worse in their own.
The American Dream is known to be a hope for a better, richer, happier life for all citizens of every class. For almost all Americans, this entails earning a college degree, gaining a good job, buying a house, and starting a family. Although this seems wonderful, a large amount of the American population believes that the Dream has changed immensely because of increased prices in today’s society, the price of tuition being highly unaffordable, as well as the unemployment rate skyrocketing and weaker job growth. While some American citizens believe it has changed, others believe that the American Dream has not changed, but point out it is harder to obtain.
Tran, Lynda. "Losing the 'American Dream'." USNEWS.com. N.P., 13 May 2013. Web. 12 Mar 2014. .
"A Profile of the Working Poor". Center for Poverty Research, 24 July 2013. Web. 6
Throughout American history, society has established an approach for defining poverty and what constitutes assistance for these people. In the years of American colonialism, people had distinct beliefs about poverty. Two of these were the most observed by society. One concept was that there must be a define separation between the deserving poor and the underserving. Once this distinction had been made, they should be treated as such. The other concept was there had to be a form of management of stranger who could potentially need to dismissed. While there is evidence of a continuation of these concepts, crucial changes occur towards the end of the twentieth century. This change can be seen within various documents written about poverty in the
Evensvold, Marty D. "The American Dream: Stories from the Heart of Our Nation." Library Journal Dec. 2001: 200. General OneFile. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.