Extreme Poverty In The United States

The current poverty rate in America is 13.5 percent (US Census Bureau). That measures out to roughly 43.1 million Americans. What exactly is poverty? Poverty means not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is so much more than just not having enough money. Poverty is not having access to a doctor or medications you may need, poverty is not having access to a good education. Poverty can be the people who are barely able to pay for food and shelter and simply can’t afford other expenses such as car repairs, field trips with their children and any other extracurricular activity.

Public housing is another program that helps to provide a roof over a family’s heads for reduced costs. Rent in some places can be quite high and a family of four may find it hard even to afford a small 3 bedroom house without breaking their pockets.

Poverty has been an ongoing issue since the birth of this Nation. When one thinks of poverty the last people we think of are the ones closest to home. As children some are told “finish your dinner, there are starving kids in Africa”, but what about the starving children whom are in neighborhoods close to us? Poverty is everywhere, even the places that are thought of as wealthy. Poverty in America; a continuing issue.There are many different definitions of poverty. The United States Census Bureau states that

In the data, what had surprised me the most was the large number of white people living in poverty in my community. I was surprised about this data because I had always thought that white people were less likely to be in poverty. On television, say President Trump for example, spoke often about how there were many African Americans in poverty that it was becoming a problem in the United States. “ You go into the inner cities and you see it's 45 percent poverty, African Americans now 45 percent poverty in the inner cities” (Sebastian, 2016). The percentage of poverty President Trump has said in his response was contradictory because it had exceeded the federal data. The percentage was less than 40 percent even in a city such as Detroit.

Every year, more than 40,000 of Americans die of deaths that could be prevented (Cecere, David). That is an astonishing number of the country that is the richest in the world. A country where some of the best hospitals and medicines are available. This has been a problem for some time in the Unites States of America (USA). It’s not only the minorities that are left out of the system to fend for their health by them self. It is also the middle class people who can’t deal with the high cost of insurance and have to go without it. There are people who do have insurance but they are under insured and it 's the same as not having it. Young or old no one is safe each age group have to worry about their health in different ways, but have the

Imagine yourself trapped inside a storm that never seems to end. Where do you go? Who do you turn to for help? Poverty is often described as an endless cycle, struggled with by many, and something parents strive to withhold from their children. In 2014, about 47 million people lived in poverty in the United States (Poverty 1). This means 15 percent of America lives in a constant state of need (Poverty 1). These people have become resented by society and caring for them is viewed as an annoyance. In a country recognized as one of the wealthiest in the world, no one’s needs should be ignored, and

America is one of the wealthiest countries on earth with having a high imbalance than other industrialized nation. Disparity exists in salary, riches, influence and training. Persons who are legitimately and socially poor in the United States tend to stay in a push through life, not generally by decision but rather in light of the fact that they are given less open doors, training and apparatuses to make progress. Neediness class has a much bigger salary crevice than the privileged, the American Dream is diminishes through circumstance and is demonstrated through measurements.

As of 2011 information released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 15% of people in the United States live in hardship, more than 46 million individuals live without necessities in America. Compared with the poorest nations on the planet, the destitution rate in the U.S. is moderately humble. In a few nations, the impoverishment rate is more than five times the United States. In Haiti, the most astounding on the planet, 77% of inhabitants live in destitution. Education and proficiency rates are especially low in these nations. (Hess and Weigley 2012)

Poverty in the world is a big problem. In the 1960s, food banks were located in 18 major cities, and one of them was Detroit. A man named Van Hengel started volunteering at a local soup kitchen when a lady with two kids told him that there should be place for homeless to go and get food almost like a bank.Van Hengel was the person who created food banks in America.Today there are more than 200 food banks in the U.S and 60,000 meal pantries. Each year the number of meal pantries and food banks increases.Food banks are still important today because there are many homeless and hungry children, and pets. The politics behind food banks in America is the governor of the state will decide if there is enough money in the budget to create food banks

Poverty is more than lacking monetary value for daily needs, which means that poverty prevention must give adequate attention to the non-economic factors which affect the impoverished. One cannot look at the spokes of poverty without recognizing the spiritual poverty that essentially underlies all of poverty. Nearly four fifths of the world’s children grow up with no knowledge of God, resulting in a catastrophic spiritual poverty. Without God many feel they lack purpose and when one lacks a purpose they are deprived of a drive to fulfill that purpose. This lack of drive contributes directly to the disintegration of Aristotle’s ideal citizen. With no drive, there is no self-sufficiency, and with no self-sufficiency there is no independence

For the first time, this report shows that by investing an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing programs and policies that increase employment, make work pay, and ensure children’s basic needs are met, the nation could reduce child poverty by 60 percent and lift 6.6 million children out of poverty.

Poverty is a complex societal issue, which includes social, economic and political elements. It is a lack of necessary means to fulfil basic human needs including food, shelter, clothing etc. The U.S. Census Bureau defines poverty as living in a household with a total cash income below 50 percent of its poverty threshold. Official poverty rates in the US as estimated by the Bureau is 12.7 percent for 2016. Official measures concluded that 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty that year, nearly 1 in every 6 people. The measure is based on information provided from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The survey is sent to U.S. households, so the poverty estimates do not include those who are homeless. (Semega,

Poverty defined by the American Heritage Dictionary is “lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts” (Hirokazu Yoshikawa, 2012). Poverty in the United States is an issue that is often times overlooked because the focus of poverty is on developing and struggling countries. People often think America does not experience poverty because it is such a thriving country. The problem with this is that America is indeed struggling with poverty: “there are currently 488 counties in America where twenty percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for the past thirty years or more” (Clyburn, 2014, p. 1). Utilitarian ethics supports the idea to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In this case, the greatest good for the greatest number of people would be to stop poverty in the United States. The causes of poverty include: lack of jobs, lack of education, and overpopulation. The reasons are linked to government policies and the way the officials handle situations.

From 1996 to 2011, poverty was on the rise in U.S households with children. A means-tested transfer program will be utilized to discuss the findings. The World Bank defined “Extreme poverty” as global poverty: a person which only earns about $2.00 dollars per day. By using 1996 to 2008 information that was provided by Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), it was estimated by mid-2011, on any given month, about 1.65 million households were living in conditions that were considered to be extreme poverty with 3.55 million being children and this is based on the cash income. In households where children lived with non-elderly parents, accounted for 4.3 percent. Since 1996 extreme poverty has sharply risen, because of the 1996 welfare

Gandhi once said, “poverty is the worst form of violence.” Gandhi didn’t make his home in America, yet he somehow still understood the struggle the poor face everyday to survive. Poverty isn’t just an “American thing”, it isn’t the “in thing”, and it certainly isn’t a “good thing.” Statistics are constantly telling Americans that for every six strangers on the street, at least one will experience poverty in their lifetime. And who comes to their rescue? America? No, certainly not. America’s income comes from the rich and goes back to the rich. There are not enough programs around the world to help the 32.2 million people that have dropped below the poverty line. The line that is the boat that determines if you swim, or drown. Those with the