...Poverty is defined as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. It is basically a condition of being poor as human beings, it is a moral duty to take care of people that are less fortunate and cannot fully take care of themselves to the best of their ability. However, on the other hand some people believe that we as humans have no moral obligation to do anything good for anyone else but ourselves. Poverty in the United States has been a social, political, and human rights issue for decades. Furthermore, the United States have been considered one of the richest country in the world. Some may even say that it is the land of opportunity for all or even the land of freedom. This in true for some Americans. However, on the other hand, many Americans are in poverty and children of Americans are suffering in America. Many families are not able to send their children to school on a regular basis. As result, they get involve prostitution and drugs in order to survive and take care of their families. The lack of education and intelligence has put individuals at risk of finding jobs and supporting their families. The government needs to pay more attention to the poverty issues within the country. The number of children that is currently living in poverty is distressing. According to the US census twenty five percent of young children are living in poverty in America. The numbers are continuously rising everyday. The number of people in the...
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...Poverty Presented By: Corey Edwards Presented To: Dr. Mary Kay Svedberg Class: SOC 100 Date: March 4, 2012 Poverty In the real world, poverty has been described as where it takes place. This means the way people eat and mostly how they live. Poverty has been blamed “as the result of policy choices, of political will, and of moral conviction” (Spriggs, 2007). Most importantly, society blames the person that is living in poverty. The South and Southwest of the United States is where the majority of poverty found. Poverty can be referred to as material conditions, economic position, or the social position of that person(s). Poverty is attributed to inequalities in the structure of society which eventually leads to denial of opportunity and perpetuation of disadvantage. And there is growing inequality among jobs. “The official jobless figures are getting worse, but just having a job is no longer protection against poverty. So many are underemployed, partially employed or just plain exploited” (Eisold, 2011). There is known to be two categories of poverty. They are absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is a set standard that does not change over time. Relative poverty is a standard which a person lives and differs over time. Environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are two urgent global issues which are similar but treated differently (poverties.org). Poverty continues to affect the mental abilities, working opportunities, health, basic needs...
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...POVERTY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WHITES IN LATIN 2 AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES Abstract This article reports the relationship between the United States immigrant and African- American families presented by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his 1965 report to President Lyndon Johnson remains the most popular folk model for explaining success, failure and mutual aid in “poverty.” The Moynihan model is an enduring part of popular discourses on race, intensified by contemporary immigrant successes narratives. The participant observation research among homeless African-American families and Latin American families had participated in a small business creation in New York City which happened more than three years ago. When kinship norms are typically American, it is said that certain immigrant family forms are more suited to mutual aid crisis. The African- American family is misused as being dysfunctional. It gives an overview of the demographic of “poverty” and how these demographics have changed since 1979. It also considers trends that have emerged over the last few decades and reconsiders the successes and failures of past public policy. It also identifies the growing feminization of poverty and the growing Latino population as the primary challenges currently facing public makers...
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...Poverty: Who are the poor in the United States? When most people think of the United States they think, the land of the free and the place were dreams come true. Living in the US, there is no limit for advancement and opportunity. No man, woman or child should ever go hungry or want for anything. Here in the US we have more cars on the road and more skyscrapers in large cities than anywhere. In small towns, there are wheat fields and cornfields for miles and miles. As an American living in the US, when we think of poverty we think of countries like India where women wash their clothes in ditches alongside main roads in Mumbai. In countries like Africa Ethiopian men, women and children may go days without a meal, sometime weeks. Examining third world countries and their poverty level, does it cross our minds that poverty really exist here in the United States? Poverty levels in the US do not compare to the poverty level in third world countries. Poverty in a third world country is measured in the terms of absolute poverty, where a person lives in conditions he/she does not have the means to meet the basic needs in life. Their living conditions could be life threaten. Here in the US, poverty level is measured in the terms of relative poverty. According to the article reviewed by Thomas J. Corbett entitled “Poverty” (2008), “Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages....
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...7 million Americans were living under the poverty line* (Bureau U. S., 2014). That same year it was estimated that women accounted for 30.6% of those living in poverty, while men only accounted for 15.7% (Bureau U. S., 2014). Women living in poverty have become a prevalent trend due to the feminization of poverty* and the glass ceiling* that they face when attempting to achieve upward social mobility*. As a result women and children often account for majority of those who are poor. A whopping 50.7% of those living in poverty today are women and children (Bureau U. S., 2014). Occurrences such as racial discrimination, low educational skills, single parenting, low paying jobs, and lack of opportunities...
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...stand for the number of people living in poverty today. There is a record number of people now living in poverty – 46.1 million, 15.1 percent of the country (www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty, 2012). How can a government such as ours even allow this to happen? And the worst part of all is that not one of the candidates in the recent presidential election even mentioned the word poverty in their campaigns, not even President Obama. My goal is to bring America back from poverty by creating an economy that is so strong that it will bring the United States away from poverty, never to return again. I would like to see this goal completed by the middle of the next decade so that once Americans are out of poverty, they will be able to stay out of poverty own their own. This will be no easy task. I have developed four solutions that will hopefully eradicate poverty in the United States. First, the creation of jobs. The lack of jobs in the United States greatly affects the number of people at the poverty level. The recent 7.5 percent unemployment rate is an improvement over the past, but it still shows that a huge number of Americans still do not have jobs. There is a requirement for both public and private companies to create jobs. Creating jobs at minimum wage will not take families out of the poverty level, creating jobs that pay middle class wages or better will be most beneficial. Second, I feel that education is necessary as another step in taking Americans out of poverty...
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...before the founding of our country, the American way of life has, and continues to be, hypocritical to the first lines of the Declaration of Independence. “That all men are created equal.” The lines that every American should hold dear to the heart, and many even lose their lives to uphold. America has seen many times of economic downturn, and economic prosperity. Though for African Americans; economics has been consistently been a downturn. The opportunity to play a role in, and to enjoy economic prosperity has always been an uphill battle for these groups. Racial inequality in America has always been inconsistent with equal opportunity in the job market. Which ultimately means that groups such as African Americans have always been deprived of their equal rights to fairly compete for jobs. Because the level of playing field is heavily shifted against minority groups and woman, there will always be high unemployment for these groups. What people tend to forget to realize is that this disparity in equal opportunity hurts the overall economy. When the nations employers deprive particular groups of economic opportunity, unemployment rises, and when unemployment rises, the poverty level will also rise. This is especially true for the case of African American. As we will see, African Americans fall below Caucasians in median income, and above Caucasians in poverty. We will also see a long history of inequalities towards African Americans in the Housing market. Comparative Median...
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...Poverty in African Americans in Inner Cities Branson Ping Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus There are many health disparities in society today. There are disparities between different genders, sexual orientation, location of living, disabilities, and most importantly, socioeconomic status (Healthy People 2020). Of these, this paper will focus on the African-American inner city lower socioeconomic status. Although this population is seen as minuscule when looking at the nation as a whole, the United States government does a less than stellar job at evening the playing field for these individuals. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2013 the people who identified themselves as African-American mixed race was 15.2% of the United States population and...
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...Running head: POVERTY AND IT’S EVERYDAY LIFE CHANGES 1 Poverty and its Everyday Life Changes Professor Deanna R. Lindsey Sociology 100, Strayer University November 4, 2011 POVERTY AND IT’S EVERYDAY LIFE CHANGES 2 Abstract This report tells of the ratings of poverty in the United States and America. It tells how poverty is constantly changing the lives of men, women, and children on an everyday basis. It speaks of things we can do as a society to help support and change the lives of those living in poverty. Poverty And It’s Everyday Life Changes 3 Poverty is a very emotional and important issue in America. It is a fact that all social inequality creates poverty. There are generally two types of poverty that are discussed, which are relative poverty and absolute poverty .Relative poverty is the lack of resources of some people in relation to those who have more. Absolute poverty is the lack of resources that is life threatening. It has been reported by “Global Stratification “, that about one billion human beings, which is one person in six are at risk of absolute poverty (Sociology, Thirteenth Edition). In this wealthy country of the Unite States families still go hungry, and live in in adequate housing, and suffer poor health because of serious lack of resources. In 2002, it was reported by the Census Bureau that poverty in the United States was had reached a high of 35 million people (Rector and Johnson, 2004). It is fact that we as human...
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...more Americans are at the poverty level each year. America can continue to stay atop the world by raising the minimum wage and keeping the poverty rate as low as possible. “Over the past 45 years, average worker productivity has more than doubled, while pay for middle-and low-income workers has either flatlined or fallen after being adjusted for inflation. This is due, in part, to our failure to raise the minimum wage” ("Should the Federal Minimum Wage be Raised"1). All that America has to do is raise the minimum wage so that the hard working citizens can earn enough money to support their own family. Money today is not worth the same as it did many years ago. The value of a dollar is decreasing over the years. The money value we have today is not equivalent to what it was many years ago. “Today's minimum of $7.25 an hour is worth 25 percent less than the minimum in the late 1960s”(" Should the Federal Minimum Wage be Raised"1). A good idea would to be matching the equivalent rate of minimum wage back in the 1960's to today's equivalent. “An increase to $10.10 an hour as proposed by President Barack Obama would restore the wage floor to the same value it...
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...Poverty in America is nothing new, we as citizens have an inkling as to what it means to be in poverty. Poverty surrounds everyone, even though many are blind to it. The subject of poverty has been unsettling to say the least. The topic of poverty is often dismissed, or belittled. Many Americans are blind to the poverty that lives around them, but ironically are aware of poverty by the numbers. Sadly numbers do not expres the entire truth of being impoverished. Every race in the United States has felt the cold relentless grip of poverty to some degree, many more so than others unfortunately. One of the highest impoverished races in the United States, are Native Americans,and following them is African Americans, then Hispanis and Latinos. After...
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...Running head: CAUSE OF AMERICAN POVERTY AND THE EFFECTS IT HAS ON CHILDREN 1 Cause of American Poverty and the Effects It Has on Children Daphney Pratcher Strayer University English 115 Cause of American Poverty and the Effects It Has on Children 2 Poverty is the lack of basic human need, such as fresh water, nutrient, health care, education, clothing, and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. Is there Poverty in America? One of the richest countries in the world? Yes, poverty is a reality in America; the causes of poverty involve issues related to economics and education coupled with abuses in governance and lack of opportunity. Poverty in American has grown tragically. It is a spreading national scourge among all races and even more so in center cities, rural areas, and on Indian reservations. There are several causes for American poverty and this affects our children. One of the most common misconceptions is the assumption that if someone is hungry, that means they do not have a job and are living on the streets. What most people don’t understand is that anyone can experience hunger. It is a silent epidemic that affects millions of Americans. Many jobs have laid people off and this has caused poverty to rise. Millions more are surviving only because of expanded unemployment insurance and other assistance. One way embattled Americans have gotten by is sharing homes with siblings...
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...The Unachievable American Dream One of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, and one of the most iconic civil rights activists in our countries history, Martin Luther King Jr., both believed in equality for all. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” ( 327). Since then, America has become the number one country for achieving life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, we know this better as the American Dream. The American Dream is something that every American strives for. Immigrants from other countries come here and become American citizens with the hope of someday achieving their ideal American Dream. We all design and carry this image in our heads of our own American Dream. The job we hope to have and the pleasant family we hope to build and raise in our perfect ideal homes, are all images that come to mind when thinking of the American Dream. Most of us, every day of our lives, are doing the best we can. We try to make this dream become a reality, but the reality of this dream is that it’s getting harder and harder to reach; due to unemployment, poverty, and our countries overall economic state. Over the past few years the country’s economy has been in a downward spiral and we’ve reached an economic recession. Poverty and unemployment rates amongst United States citizens have...
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...| Economics vs. Poverty | | | Cindy Moore | 12/2/2012 | | Poverty has several definitions however it basically means “a state of privation or lack of the usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.” There is no universally accepted definition of “socially acceptable money or material possessions” that exists because poverty is a relative concept. In other poorer countries it is said to mean living at the brink of subsistence, while in America many suffer from undernourishment, not many confront starvation. A key concern in the area of poverty is the reality of inequality. Inequality has been and continues to be a problem in all societies. There is no society that distributes income evenly. In spite of all the theoretical and technical problems of measurement, the government has developed a widely cited poverty index that reflects the diverse intake requirements of families depending on their size, sex, age and family location, while also surveying the gender of the head of household. Based on previous surveys, the creators of the poverty index determined that families of three or more persons would spend approximately one-third of their income on food. Based on the poverty index the poverty level for these families would be set at three times the cost of the economy food plan. For smaller families and people who lived alone, the cost of economy food plan were multiplied at higher factors taking in consideration larger fixed...
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...Poverty in America: An Overview Stephanie Tran Pol S 310 Professor Strohman Iowa State University Some people may argue that the American dream is no longer achievable. Perhaps it was, but as time lapses and history takes its course, the pursuit itself may appear meeker. Today, most people would agree that the economy “is bad,” but what does that truly mean? A “bad economy” may impact some families on a more personal level than it appears. There are 20.6 million people in the United States who live in deep poverty, 6 million of whom have no income (Edelman). A family that lives in poverty is not always obvious to the eye. When a person thinks of “poverty,” he or she may think of developing countries with people who live with little to no food, shelter, or clothing. They may think of the too-thin African children in black and white commercials with the sad music trying to guilt viewers to send money. However, in America, poverty is a little more complex than that, and standards for poverty here are different than that of Africa, Asia, or Mexico. While poverty in the United States may still include an income, free education for children, and a place to live, it still may entail food insecurity, debt, lack of basic necessities, and the weight of stress and pressure from society that can take a huge emotional toll on a family. Poverty in the United States is a very real problem, and many people are unaware of the impacts of it. In the United States, the poverty rate...
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