'Poverty in the United States Research Paper Essay\r'

'Today, â€Å"the number of plenty in the U.S. who argon in leanness is increasing to record levels with the ranks of working- long term sad come 1960s levels that led to the national warf be on destitution” (â€Å" need in the f solely in States,” 2012). When aromaing at the to a greater extent and more important final payment of beggary in the coupled States, one cannot help scarcely wonder how this will affect time to come generations and the stability of the nation as a whole. In order to fully recognise the problem at hand, imp everywhereishment must(prenominal) first be delimit, adjudge the causes and effectuate of it examined, look at it from a introduction-wide perspective, and thusly consider how it will affect the approaching of the join States. The goal of this document is to form to the readers attention the potency consequences of ignoring meagerness in the lose to modernizeher States and motivate them to do something intimately it.\r\nâ€Å"Poverty is the deprivation of well existence that occurs when throng cannot satisfy their basic necessarily” (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). there argon two kinds of privation: unassailable meagreness and recounting leanness. right-down privation, or destitution, refers to the lack of basis call for such as food, water, clothes, shelter, health c atomic number 18, studyal activity, and the requirement supplies to put knocked out(p) hygienically (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). When poverty is metric in relative terms, it is defined contextually by the median(prenominal) income of where population live (Smeeding, 2006, p. 71).\r\nRelative poverty does not require that that the person is lacking anything, just that they ar nourishment below a received level of income (â€Å"Poverty in the joined States,” 2012). For example: a person with an annual income of $150,000 living in a locality with an average annual income of $500,000 i s relatively short even though they by no sloppeds lack the ability to set up the basic essential needs outlined by absolute poverty. Both types of poverty vary from location to location, but absolute poverty tends to be more of a universal definition epoch relative poverty is strictly dependent upon the\r\n travel rapidly dealer: POVERTY IN THE coupled STATES 3\r\nlocation in which a person lives. â€Å"Since the 1960s, the united States government has defined poverty in absolute terms. When the Johnson disposal declared ‘war on poverty’ in 1964, it chose an absolute measure. The ‘absolute poverty line’ is the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to discover the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to deliver the goods the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health” (â€Å"Poverty in the unite States,” 2012).\r\nâ€Å"A 2001 summit in the fall i n States asked: ‘In your opinion, which is the cock-a-hoop cause of poverty today- that people are not doing enough to help themselves out of poverty, or that circumstances beyond their match cause them to be poor people?’ Responses were most evenly split between ‘people not doing enough’ (48 percent) and ‘circumstances’ (45 percent)” (Iceland, 2006, p. 70). There are some(prenominal) speculations as to what the causes of poverty in the unify States are and studies leaven that the main causes are both fond and economic, both of which will be discussed here. Problems lead to poverty in the unify States imply family status, the level of education of the leave of household, age of the show of household, and race.\r\nâ€Å"In 1991, 8.3% of children in two- rear families were apparent to live in poverty; 19.6% of children living with father in single parent family; and 47.1% in single parent family steered by mother” (â⠂¬Å"Poverty in the fall in States,” 2012). That means that an average of 33.35% of children coming from a single parent family are potential to live in poverty compared to a mere 8.3% of children living in the traditional, two-parent, family. some other great factor leading to poverty is the level of education of the head of household. â€Å"Studies realise shown that people who invest in their education or skills can expect higher(prenominal) incomes” (Iceland, 2006, p. 70-71). Obviously, income has\r\n ladder head: POVERTY IN THE get together STATES 4\r\na betoken correlation with poverty as it is in the essence of its definition. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, â€Å"the median earnings of household headed by individuals with slight than a 9th grade education was $20,805 patch households headed by high school graduates gain $40,456, households headed by holders of a bachelor’s degree earned $77,605, and families headed by individuals with professi onal person degrees earned $100,00” (â€Å"Poverty in the United States,” 2012). In 2009, households headed by individuals age 15-24 averaged an income of $30,750 annually, while households headed by individuals age 25-34 averaged $50,188, and households with a head age 35-44 averaged $61,083 (â€Å"Poverty in the United States,” 2012). Along with this study, there were no indicators as to what the primary cause of this was; however, it’s thinkable that work experience and additional education may be factors. While this is more of a combination of a societal and economic factor to poverty, it is more of a social one because it deals directly with the head of household.\r\nThe factor related to poverty to look at is race. In 2003, the poverty tread amongst African the Statesns in the United States was 24.4%, just close to double the national poverty station of 12.5% (Iceland, 2006, p. 81). This could be collect to the oppressions of society through with(predicate) racial discrimination or profiling, or simply the effect of the oppression that erst was- slavery and the racist discrimination of the earliest 20th century. â€Å"Poverty increases the risk of homelessness” (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012), and children who prepare up in low income families nonplus less of a chance to get a good education and render to better themselves and their income (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). With this in mind, it makes sense that the African American community makes up a large majority of the poor in the United States. Their beginnings in this nation were the lowest, poorest conditions of anyone in that day. Many believe that they simply have not been able to\r\nRunning head: POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 5\r\nclimb out of the hole they were dictated in to when they were enslaved back in the 1700’s. â€Å" other factor that contributes to higher poverty place among African Americans is hu patch-capital skills diametrici als. This refers to differences in average levels of education, tonicity of educational opportunities, and subsequent work experience. The breakout in average levels of education has declined over the past few decades. Nevertheless, the quality of tuition received by children varies widely, and African Americans are more likely to attend modest schools with fewer resources” (Iceland, 2006, P. 84).\r\nAttendance to schools with fewer resources is a direct result of their economic situation, which causes the poor to stay poor in this case. another(prenominal) example of race being a factor of poverty in the United States can be forecastn when observing the Hispanic culture. In 2003, the Latino poverty evaluate was at 22.5%, just below that of the African American community (Iceland, 2006, p. 85). This is in large part due to immigration, as â€Å"immigrant families are at greater risk of poverty than nonimmigrant families” (Iceland, 2006, p. 85). Also, â€Å"in pla ces with human racey immigrants, the competition for low-wage jobs as well as appears to drive down wages for these immigrants” (Iceland, 2006, p. 86). For as much as Americans focus on equal luck and not dandy based upon race, it would appear that poverty does abstract based upon race and does not provide all races with equal opportunities in the United States.\r\nObviously there are exceptions, and not everyone who grows up in poverty waistcloth poor. Nonetheless, there is still a slide of minority races having higher poverty grade in the United States. â€Å"21% of all children in the United States live in poverty; about 46% of drab children and 40% of Latino children live in poverty” (â€Å"Poverty in the United States,” 2012). Now that the factors leading to poverty and cause of them have been examined, it is time Running head: POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 6\r\nto look at poverty from a world-wide perspective. Mahatma Gandhi said, â€Å"Poverty is t he worst form of violence.” every across the world, this violence is real, and to many, a course of life. The poverty line is much decline in some other countries due to an uneven distribution of wealth. In the USA, the pie-eyed middle class brings the median up and causes the poverty threshold to be higher. However, different factors such as the level and arch of poverty and inequality amongst nations, along with commodious detail on the sources of market incomes and national policies are used to compare poverty levels from nation to nation (Smeeding, 2006, p. 69). With that said, absolute poverty is much more rampant in some other countries than it is in the United States.\r\nFor example: in 2008, of the estimated 1.29 billion people living in absolute poverty, four hundred zillion of them lived in India and 173 million lived in China. That’s almost half of the world’s poor living in just those two countries, while the United States hosted just 39.1 mil lion. Everyone reacts to their circumstances in a different way. For example: â€Å"in Zimbabwe, a number of girls are unit of ammunitioning to whoredom for food to survive” (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). Some turn to violence or steal to get what they need to survive.\r\nFor many Children living in poverty, their lives are deemed a failure forrader they are ever given up a chance to succeed. â€Å"Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances” (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). In some countries, young children can be seen begging in the streets for money. As Abraham Maslow showed in his hierarchy of needs, when people don’t have their basic needs- food, water, shelter, safety, comfort, etc.- it can be very difficult to focus on much more than those. For children living in absolute poverty, these are the very things that they look after on a\r\nRunning head: POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 7\r\ndaily basis. The number of homeless children in America rose from 1.2 million in 2007 to 1.6 million in 2010 (â€Å"Poverty,” 2012). Children are the future of this great nation. If so many are forced to grow up in sub-par circumstances without the necessary tools and opportunities to be successful, how can the United States fulfill its potential as a nation.\r\nPoverty range are on the rise formerly again. It is everybody’s responsibility to do something about it. Give what can be given. feed the homeless. Care for them. Provide the poor with an opportunity to better their lives. â€Å"Give a man a fish and you’ve fed him that day, train a man to fish and he can eat for the rest of his life.” sometimes all that needs to be given is a little bit of time and energy to reach out and test to better someone else’s circumstances. In this paper, poverty was defined, the causes and effects of poverty were examined, it was looked a t from a world-wide perspective, and the long term effects of poverty in the United States were considered. mess can never know what they are truly capable of until they truly founder themselves. Just because poverty has always been an issue in the world does not mean that it always has to be. Take it from a man who spent his life serving the poor and trying to better the world or so him:\r\nâ€Å"be the change you wish to see in the world” -Mahatma Gandhi.\r\nRunning head: POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 8\r\nReferences\r\nPoverty. (10/6/2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty. Poverty in the United States. (9/24/2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States. Iceland, J. (2006). Poverty in America: A handbook. Berkley and Los Angeles, CA:\r\nUniversity of California Press.\r\nSmeeding, T. (2006). misfortunate people in rich nations: The United States in comparative perspective. Journal of economical Perspectives, 20(1), 69-90.\r\n'