The Issue of Poverty in the United States

Poverty For some poverty is a way of life the day to day struggle of keeping food on the table and clothes on their back. For others it is something that is seen only on television, and even then it is not so easy to comprehend. This is usually the case with families who are well to do and money is not an issue. They may describe the characteristics of poverty as to not have certain materialistic items such as clothes, cars, accessories etc. However to someone living in those circumstances it may mean not having the basic necessities of life. What causes this to happen in society?

How do people and families reach such a state of desperation? Well there are many reasons as to why this happens; poverty can be attributed to a changing society whereby the cost of living increases and the wages stay the same. It seems logical, if the income per household is lower than the standard of living it then places a family in a position of challenge to meet the needs of everyday life. Poverty, also known as the “silent killer,” which exists in every corner of the world. The death rate of poverty children is a staggering number; about 9 million children die each year.

Some view poverty as people not being able to afford an occupational meal or having to skip a meal to save money. This isn’t true poverty; poverty is where people live on $1. 25 or less a day. Living the life of poverty is like living on a rapid downward spinning spiral towards failure. If you were born into poverty there is a slim chance of you making a brighter future for yourself. In some countries, especially Africa, they have a law that states if you’re contagious then you can’t go to school. Most kids in poverty are chronically ill, therefore seldom going to get an education.

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The lack of education is a major difficulty for these children later in life. What does it mean to be poor in America? There is no single description of American poverty. But for many, perhaps most, it means homes with inadequate heating, unstable plumbing, and uncertain electricity. It often means a home where some go to bed hungry and malnutrition is very frequent. For almost all the poverty stricken families it means that life is a constant struggle to obtain the merest necessities of existence, the things that most of us take for granted. We can do better than this; Poverty is prevalent throughout the orld around us. We watch television and see famous people begging us to sponsor a child for only ten dollars a month. We think in our own minds that ten dollars is only pocket change, but to those children and their families, those ten dollars is a large portion of their annual income. We see images of starving children in faraway countries, and our hearts go out to them. But we really do not know the implications of poverty, why it exists, or even what we can do to help combat this giant problem in our world. Americans including myself do not want to hear is that our country is struggling to make currency.

In some way, somehow your everyday life is impacted due to a major issue you are dealing with. The issue that affected me greatly in the past and is still contemporarily affecting me is definitely the unfortunate recession our economy is facing which caused havoc in my family, and almost permanently damaged my hopes in getting somewhere with my education. Unemployment rates are at the absolute lowest, oil pricing is jaw dropping; businesses are losing massive amounts of money on a day to day basis. The economy is causing complete pandemonium and affected the lives of my family and me greatly.

According to President Barack Obama who claims to help us progress and get out of this economic slump “Money is not the only answer but it makes a difference. ” For the most part I agree with President Obama’s statement, however, for my family and I money was crucial due to the recession and the unemployment rates dropping. Poverty takes a toll on everyone; there was a point in my life where I witnessed poverty firsthand. I was born and raised in Iraq, seeing homeless people around became completely normal the majority of the population lived in poverty.

Kids dying every day because no one could afford food on the table, 7 year old children on the streets selling whatever they can get their hands on just to be able to buy a couple pieces of bread to feed a family of like 5 or 6. Woman giving birth at their homes, because of the fact that they cannot afford transportation to get to a hospital, or a hospital bill. I know a family that couldn’t even afford a decent home; they were living in a tent, a mother, father, and 3 children. No occupation and they struggled for food every single day. The 4 year old daughter suffered from a really bad sickness and didn’t make it past the age of 7.

Poverty has been a serious social life problem. Different types of diseases, abortions, and domestic violence are all severe cases that occur because of poverty. Absolute poverty: over 1. 2 billion people, 1 in every 5 on earth live on less than $1 a day. Absolute poverty goes on for a long period of time, enough time to endanger one’s life, or cause harm. Hunger, illness, and thirst are considered both causes and effects of poverty. These are things that one needs to survive, and to live a long successful life, yet billions of people are lacking the things we need most in life. Just as the causes of poverty are often interrelated, so are the effects of poverty. Bad sanitation makes it easier to spread around old and new diseases, and hunger and lack of water make people more vulnerable to them. Impoverished communities often suffer from discrimination and so get caught in cycles of poverty that create long lasting problems and handicaps passed on from one generation to another: not attending school, child labor to help the parents, lack of education on basic hygiene, transmission of diseases, etc. “

Since the 1990s the number of people living in EXTREME poverty has been dropping and the rates continue to fall. The issue of global food crisis started in the 2000s and is bound to plague millions more. The estimations of the world population growth, experts think that we’ll need to produce twice more food in 2050 than we were at the beginning of the century. The largest reduction was in East Asia and Pacific, China made great improvements. Sub Saharan Africa began to reduce the number of people in extreme poverty in the 1990s. As a result to the global economic recession, people living in extreme poverty have suffered the most.

People struggled for survival even before the recession, the long-tern effects of this recession are expected to push millions more into extreme poverty. Many people have felt a shortage of cash at some point in their life. This is considered and individual experience. Money is a measure of wealth, lack of cash can be a measure of lack of wealth, but it’s not the social problem of poverty. A cause can be seen as something that contributes to the origin of a problem like poverty. Poverty on a world scale has many historical causes such as slavery, war, and conquest. A factor can be seen as something hat contributes to its continuation after it has already existed. There are important differences between the two, the difference is in term of what we can do about it today, we cannot go back into history and change the past, poverty exists, and poverty was caused. The only thing we can do is perpetuate poverty. There are 5 factors of poverty: ignorance, disease, apathy, dependency, and dishonesty. All social problems link back to these 5 factors, there caused by one of these factors. Observing the identity of these factors can actually take action, remove them, and eradicate poverty.

Ignorance: lack of information and lack of knowledge. “Knowledge is power”, some people knowing this try to keep knowledge to themselves because they don’t want others to obtain knowledge. Fighting ignorance can help reduce poverty. People are constantly inundated with mail from all sorts of organizations, aiming at helping the poor. On TV, on the internet, many advertisements use dirty suffering children to soften our hearts to make donations, there are many fortunate people out there that can reach out to the less fortunate and make a difference and that are when ignorance takes place.

Fighting ignorance is the only solution to deter the progress of poverty. Disease: When a community has a high disease rate, absence is high, productivity is extremely low, and less wealth is in the picture. Discomfort, misery, and death all result from poverty. Every ones well-being helps contribute to the eradication of poverty throughout the community. Preventing a disease is better than curing it. The economy will be much healthier if the population is healthy; access to safe and clean drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation are extremely important and there solutions to preventing a disease.

Many people see access to health care as a question of human rights; a healthy population contributes to the eradication of poverty. Apathy: Apathy is when people don’t have a care in the world, when they feel powerless, the wont even bother trying to change things, to right a wrong, to fix a mistake, or to even improve a serious condition. Apathy breeds apathy, meaning sometimes people feel like there’s things in life that they can’t/never will achieve, that’s when jealousy takes place whether its towards a family member or a close friend, they seek to bring the attempting achiever down to their own level of poverty.

Apathy can also be justified by religion, “Accept what exists because god has decided your fate. ” God decides our fate, but we should be motivated to improve ourselves. We are in god’s hands, but we also have a responsibility to help ourselves. We are created with many abilities, from cooperation to organization, to improving our lives one step at a time; we should not let God be used as an excuse to do nothing. We must praise god and use out God-given talent to help other to come together as a community and change our world for the better.

Dishonesty: lack of integrity and lack of honesty, Poverty is a result of dishonesty that comes with a various amount of labels. Theft, corruption, and extortion, this occurs when wealth intended for development of the whole society. We Americans tell ourselves a lie, the U. S. Census Bureau released poverty rates years ago, the president, the media, and politicians rehearsed empty remarks on why poverty’s been increasing and decreasing in some areas and there was a big fuss on how the entire episode was profoundly dishonest.

Poverty in the United States in insignificant, 36 million people are “officially poor”, the United States is the richest country in the world, yet we have the most poverty. Being faithful, caring and loyal to one another pulls people away from dishonesty, something we definitely need more of. Last but not least Dependency: An attitude, a belief, a person can be so poor and so helpless and the only thing they look forward to is assistance from others. Attitude and a shared belief is the biggest self-justifying factor. The story of Mohammed and the rope is an amazing story that encourages dependency and it empowers the weak.

Mohammed and the Rope: “The Holy Prophet Mohammed, peace is upon him, was approached by a hungry man who asked for food. Instead, Mohammed gave the man a piece of rope and some advice: "Go to the woods and collect dry wood lying about. Tie it with this rope. Take it to the town and sell it for firewood. Use the money to buy food. " Mohammed had given a gift that helped the man become independent of begging. ” The beggar was hungry and asked for food, but the prophet gave him just enough advice which allowed him to provide his own food These five factors are not independent, they all contradict one another.

Disease contributes to ignorance and apathy, Dishonesty contributes to disease and dependency, etc... The big 5 factors of poverty appear to be widespread and are deeply embedded in cultural values and practices. If people actually make sometime and commit towards the factors of poverty we can make a difference, we can have the ultimate victory over poverty. The only solution to the social problem of poverty is the social solution of removing the factors of poverty, that’s the only way if these 5 factors remain then so will poverty. The main problem in our country nowadays is poverty.

Poverty is a widespread it happens everywhere around the world, poor people battle hunger, deal with undernourishment, and mineral deficiencies, which also result in growth, weakness and susceptibility to illnesses, ultimate deaths all caused by hunger. I believe that international regimes, the World Bank and United Nations can affect changes if they attempt to do so. There are no perfect answers for development, poverty is a very intense and difficult issue, we shouldn’t ignore those living in poverty, and we should reach out to them in every way possible. We are obligated to try out hardest to make circumstances better for them.

Does ending poverty help the middle and upper class citizens? Of course it will. Any plans for rebuilding the American economy and ending poverty will generate re-educating everyone. That education will help stimulate the hard working to create new products and jobs for everyone in need of them. Poverty has been going on for decades, it’s about time someone puts an end to all of this chaos, I can’t bare to see another homeless person, I can’t bare to see another abortion, not only are these issues are getting out of control but they’re taking a toll on the world one step at a time.

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