...The poverty line is vital to the government of the United States. While society uses it to determine who is considered poor, there have been some changes in world for it to be invalid. With times changing, there could be some adjustments done to the policy for it to be more accurate in modern times. While, there is much to be done, one would need to know the start of the poverty line. The beginning of the official poverty line was established in 1963 by Mollie Orshanky, the purpose being to see what makes one poor. Orshanky’s job was to determine what was the biggest necessity for people to purchase. With her angle on food being key, she configured the formula, which resulted the first poverty line being approximately $3,600 a year. With her first draft of the line being presented, she then had to rework to include less people in poverty, which moved the line to $3,000 a year....
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...Environmental Health Term Paper: Childhood Obesity in Low Socioeconomic Status Communities Jordan Landers Florida State University Abstract Obesity is at an all time high in the Unites States, affecting 35% of adults and 17% of children. Childhood obesity can be very detrimental causing emotional, physical, and social strain on the lives of adolescents. Those that are affected the most are citizens that live in low socioeconomic status communities due to lack of education and lack of resources. There are shortages of grocery stores and markets that offer fresh fruits and vegetables thus communities rely on fast food restaurants and convenient stores for food. Furthermore lack of fresh food coupled with physical inactivity is the main reason for the rise of childhood obesity and obesity in general in the past 30 years. Creating safe places for children to play as well as providing food and resources is the only way to eliminate the ongoing obesity epidemic. Growing up there has always been a certain degree of importance placed on the diet and living a healthy lifestyle to live a long and successful life. As of late there has been a boom in fitness sales, gym memberships, and importance on diet and quality food consumption, yet in the past 30 years the United States has seen a drastic increase in the amount of obese individuals. With social media and so many other health initiatives taking place across the country, why is there still a rise in obesity levels amongst...
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...Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that everyone in the United States will always remember. During the Hurricane there was so much water that was produced that the levees around New Orleans could not withstand the pressure and the levees broke. Was it Hurricane Katrina that caused all the damage in New Orleans or was it the fact that the levees could not hold all the water, thus making the levees brake. Jim Wallis shed light to the truth that most Americans were not aware, and the media did not cover. Hurricane Katrina did not only destroy homes, businesses it also destroyed lives of thousands of people who lived in New Orleans. The essay reflects on our society's reluctance to admit how poverty and race correlates to our American society. (Lamm & Everett, 2007) Jim Wallis reveals the ethos argument by using his background as a veteran of the Civil War rights antiwar movements of 1960s and his years of experience in fighting for social justice..He uses his knowledge as a civil rights supporter to make several points about poverty in the United States. He gains the respect of his audience by expressing the importance of poverty in the United States and his passion for wanting to help the millions stricken by poverty in the United States. The way he approaches the topic of poverty with all the information he knows about the topic the audience believes he knows what he is writing about. When he states “The poor have been near the bottom of our priority list, if they...
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...In the United States alone, more than 16 million children, approximately 22% of all children, reside in families with salaries below the federal poverty level; $23,550 a year. On average, families require an income of about double that given amount to cover the necessities. According to this, 45% of children belong to a low-income family. Moreover, people of color have an especially high rate of child poverty. Among African American children, 39.1% are poor, 35% are Hispanic children and 12.4% among non-Hispanic white children. Even more so, all poor people aged 18 and older 58% of them are women and 48% of them are men. This results in feminization of poverty, defined as the trend of women making up an increasing proportion of the poor. The feminization of poverty is a consequence of a larger trend: the...
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...of course Spain. When culture comes to mind people take in what they see visually and interact within the environment and region or a group of people who are distinctly different from the rest of the people in the world. “Prophetically, over a hundred years ago, the great American poet, Walt Whitman, said, "I have an idea that there is much of importance about the Latin contributions to American nationality that will never be put with sympathetic understanding and tact on the record." Whitman was correct.” Hispanics have many distinctive characteristics that separate their culture from any other. Their culture can have a complexity, but its nature can be expressed beautifully. Hispanic Americans contribute to the commonwealth of the United States; they have mutual citizenship, legal tender and security within the United States of America. Their population is a total of 3.8 million with 2 million living in the United States. Puerto Rico is a well-known tourist attraction simply because of the location, history, and its atmosphere. Spanish and English are official languages spoken by Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans in the United States tend to be more English-language oriented, with 39 percent English-dominant, 40 percent bilingual, and 21 percent Spanish dominant. By English...
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...Poverty in the Coalfields West Virginia and other surrounding Appalachian areas are pretty well known for being associated with the coal industry. Coal is one of the West Virginia’s primary economic resources. Coal is found in fifty-three of the states fifty-five counties, except for Jefferson and Hardy counties. It was once reported that forty-three counties in West Virginia have coal deposits of great economic importance with many of them being mined or have been mined. All of this has brought prosperity to this region at one time. However for a while now the southern part of West Virginia and northern part of Kentucky has been suffering from deep economic distress. One-third of the 100 poorest counties in the United States, as measured by median household income, are concentrated in the coalfields. This “pocket of poverty,” as economists sometimes refer to it, has, for decades, recorded extremely high levels of deprivation, unemployment and all the social problems that accompany them. This has been worsened by the lack of government spending on the region and scarcity of basic infrastructure such as: freeways, commuter rail, airports, Internet connectivity, and public universities. Yet in an immediate and direct way, the region is globally integrated. It continues to be one of the largest producers of coal in the country as well as a major lumber exporter. So why does this region continue to live poverty filled lives? This is a barefaced portrait of...
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...Child abuse is a state of emotional, physical, economic and sexual maltreatment meted out to a person below the age of eighteen and is a globally prevalent phenomenon. It has serious physical and psycho-social consequences which adversely affect the health and over-all well-being of a child. It may include physical or mental ill-treatment, sexual abuse, malnutrition and many others which are responsible for hindrance of a healthy growing body of a child. Children who are normally born in poor families areoften subjected to work at shorter ages and are usually underpaid and harassed both mentally and physically. Child abuse is a violation of the basic human rights of a child and is an outcome of a set of inter-related, social, psychological and economic factors. While certain child abuse and neglected issues are common in almost all countries at the global level such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, problems of street children, there are also many issues which are prevalent only in certain regions of the world.For instance, in Asia where population density is high, the issues of child labor and child sexual exploitation are also high. The largest population of children in the world live in South Asia and majority of these children lack access to proper health care, nutrition and education. This reflects the socio-economic reality of the developing countries of the Asian region. The main...
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...Poverty in Mexico Mexican poverty dates back to early 1700s, but has witnessed major changes in which around 65% of citizens were in extreme poverty in the 1950s (Luna). Then, the number of Mexicans living below the poverty line increased following the 1980s economic crisis and the same effect occurred after the 1995 crisis. Ultimately, the second catastrophe brought 35% of the population under the extreme poverty line. Since then, the economy has been recovering, slowly salvaging the people (Berrebi). However, the global financial crisis and the commotion with the drug cartels recently brought a rise to increased poverty once again. As a result, the country responded with improved social assistance programs directed at helping the poorest...
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...older generations, especially when it comes to the issue of poverty. Poverty is defined as the general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements and becomes self-replicating. Nicholas Kristof, a well-known columnist for the New York Times, writes many opinion pieces on this issue. Kristof has been writing about poverty since the beginning of his career with the New York Times. Kristof is prompted to write about poverty because his main focus includes human rights, women’s rights, health, and global affairs. He has written columns on the issue of poverty dating as far back as 2001. He not only writes of the...
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...There are countless advertisements, billboards, and social media posts that market the services and products of for profit companies. These strategies, however, are also vital for the success of a nonprofit organization as well. An area of marketing that I found to be the most interesting and arguably the most important were the four P's; product, place, prize, and promotion (Tschirhart & Bielefeld, 2012). I had not thought about these elements in regards to a nonprofit before this class, but now I understand their importance. For a nonprofit, it is vital to have a clear product or service in order to understand what the nonprofit has to provide (Tschirhart & Bielefeld, 2012). If a nonprofit did not have a product, then their purpose would also be unclear. Highly associated with product in place. Place refers to the number of locations, how the services can be delivered, and other aspects that are related to the atmosphere of the services (Tschirhart & Bielefeld, 2012). Though the product and place are arguably the most important of the four P's, having proper promotion can also be vital to...
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...Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Paper no. 1044-94 Long-Term Poverty and Child Development in the United States: Results from the NLSY Sanders Korenman Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and Center for Population Analysis and Policy University of Minnesota Jane E. Miller Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research Rutgers University John E. Sjaastad Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs University of Minnesota September 1994 This research was funded by a grant from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin. An earlier version of part of this paper appeared as part of Office of Population Research Working Paper No. 93-5, Princeton University, June 1993, which contains supplemental analyses and is available from the authors. We thank participants in seminars at the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the 1993 meetings of the Population Association of America for their comments. Abstract The authors describe developmental deficits in early childhood associated with long-term poverty in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). They compare estimates of the effects of long-term poverty (based on a thirteen-year average of income) to estimates of the effects of poverty based on a single year of income (at the time of developmental assessment). They find substantial developmental deficits among...
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...Gurinder K. Fnu Soc&101 The Culture Of Poverty and the theory of Functionalism Background: In 1959 a sociologist, Oscar Lewis investigated poverty and its trends amongst society. Lewis came up with a theory commonly known as the ‘Cycle of Poverty’. The cycle of poverty is the term used to refer to the phenomenon in which poor families become trapped in poverty for generations. This is because they have no access to long-term education and no long-term financial guarantees. The cycle of poverty suggests young children who are born into poverty will remain in poverty because they lack the ability to go to school and receive no education, their families are not financially stable (no clean clothing, a poor diet, lack of hygiene, etc.). The ability for them to break out of this cycle is limited, and in some cases simply not possible. The structural-functionalist approach to stratification asks the question: what function or purpose does stratification serve? The theory's answer is that all parts of society, even poverty, contribute in some way or another to the larger system's stability. Structural-functionalists maintain that stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society: the layering is useful because it ensures that the best people are at the top of the hierarchy and those who are less worthy are at the bottom. Those at the top are given power and rewards because of high abilities, and the high rewards exist to provide incentive for qualified...
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...Millennium Development Goal #1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger Millennium Development Goal #1 Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger History has shown poverty and hunger has been an ongoing issue all over the world. Wars have been fought not only because of persecution, freedom, and inequality but also due to starvation affecting a great number of populations who are less fortunate. Although peace and unity has taken place in some parts of the world, research shows that the challenge in poverty and hunger continues. Today, approximately 870 million people are undernourished with over 100 million undernourished and underweight being children under the age of five. (WHO, 2011) UNICEF says that even in the world’s richest countries, one in every six children still lives below the national poverty line. Local and international organizations working hand in hand to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger have made great progress since 2000. Along with undernourishment; however, about 1.2 billion people still live in extreme poverty and about 30% of these are children. During the Millennium Summit in 2000, the United Nations gathered together with several other members such as UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, and UNESCO just to name a few. During this summit they established 8 goals to attend the world’s need. These goals are to be monitored regularly by all the UN members and accomplished by 2015. To conclude whether these are being met or not, they are using statistics...
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...under age eighteen lived in families with incomes below the official poverty threshold. Although children age eighteen and under represent 26 percent of the United States population, they comprise nearly 40 percent of the poverty population. Despite a steady decrease from 1993 (23%) to 1999 (17%) in the rate of children in poverty, the United States still ranks highest in childhood poverty among all industrialized nations. In the United States, income poverty is defined by the poverty threshold, developed in 1959 and based on expected food expenditures (thrifty food basket) for families of varying sizes. Each year the threshold is adjusted for the Consumer Price Index cost of living. In 1999, the poverty threshold for a single mother raising two children was $13,423. Researchers have criticized the poverty threshold on numerous counts. First, government transfers such as food stamps and housing subsidies as well as tax benefits (e.g., the Earned Income Tax Credit) and tax payments are not included when assessing the poverty threshold. Second, regional and urban differences in the cost of living are not considered when computing the poverty threshold. Despite the criticisms levied against the way poverty is assessed in the United States, the current review highlights research that has used this definition of poverty, while acknowledging its weaknesses. This article reviews the literature linking family poverty to children's cognitive and educational outcomes such as achievement...
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...in fatherless homes were living in poverty, which is four times the rate of children living with two married parents (ASPE Staff). Poverty is not the result of fatherlessness, but crime also. According to Rarick: “Boys in households with a father present had significantly lower odds of incarceration than those in single-mother families.” (11) Americans who wish to reduce violent crime and end poverty should take steps to improve families across the nation. The most effective of these steps is to reestablish marriage. “The institution of marriage acts as culture’s chief vehicle to bind men to their children.” (Rarick 14) Legislatures must create policy with the family in mind. To ignore the root of these problems any longer would be detrimental to...
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