Poverty in the United States - Research Paper Example

Your The of Poverty in United s Poverty is one of those existing attributes of a society that continues to be under critical analysis, or intense political debate, so as to undermine its influence in the community since its impact, if not kept under a scrutinizing eye, can administer adversely colossal blows to the harmony and development of the community. This notion is further elaborated by Iceland in terms of poverty’s influence in the different sectors of the society, he wrote, hardships which are part in parcel of poverty, bears negative brunt on the individual’s physiological and psychological well being. He cited the example of children, who have been raised in underprivileged environment, faces noticeable shortcomings in terms of cognition, academic achievements and emotional wellbeing. Poor individuals, he says have a lower mortality rates and unhealthy lifestyles, they have small opportunity of good education and an unstable family background. He is of the opinion that declining levels of poverty results in enhancement of healthy economy as it increases the purchasing power of the masses which in return boosts the economic growth and living standards. Also, he states, poverty provokes social disorder and sets the stage for criminal acts and furthermore, it reduces public confidence in the constitution (2-3). It is important to note, however, that poverty has always remained existent in the world since its inception, the unequal distribution of resources, social ostracism, inequality in justice and the accumulation of wealth within a few have been characteristics of mostly all human settlements. Lawson and Lawson shares that a basic diet consisting of the required amount of calories, shelter and clothing is the need of the humanity, they further elaborate that poverty varies from time to time and to location, as the dietary standards and conditions of clothing and shelter changes, therefore, the parameters of poverty in the United States is completely different from that of poverty in Somalia (15). In the seventeenth century, the English government wanted to relief themselves of their poor population and convicts, and was of the intention to unload them in the new land, the Americas. A company called the Virginia Company, chartered by King James I, financed the transportation costs in return for labor; many convicts migrated (Axelrod 10). Axelrod further states that for some of these new colonizers, the risk paid off and they were employed as contracted laborers, finished their period of service and became freed farmer, but others found barren land and broken promises in the new land. Reef describes the conditions of these free indentured servants, she says, it was a matter of great hardship for them to move up from being the most underprivileged society since they lacked the necessary resources, it is estimated, she revealed, that a mere tenth of indentured servants became wealthy farmers, another tenth artisans and the rest, if their death did not occur, became labored workers or nomads, who roamed from cities to cities in the quest for food, employment and change of fortune (4). According to Lawson and Lawson, the Industrialization began in America at the end of eighteenth and the beginning of nineteenth century and accompanied some very drastic changes in the American society. They argue that even though, the industrialization era brought about greater productivity and capital to the nation, but it also invited poverty and rendered a number of people homeless. They stated that the increasing population of emigrants from Europe who settled in America, increased competition in terms of employment and accommodation amongst the colonizers; this led to increased form of demarcation in relation to race, ethnicity, class and poverty (17). Reef reveals that between the period of August 1619 to January 1808, when the act of importing slaved to the United States became illegal, the traders, smuggled about 400,000 African slaves who become indentured servants who took up labor, at times for life. Their period of servitude became indefinite, moreover, black slavery were being sanctioned by the constitution, by 1970. Every settlement had a law permitting to enslave the individuals of African descent (48). White and White reveal that the conditions, the new Negroes worked with were horrendous, they were made to stand waist deep in the muck of North Carolina swamps which housed mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, steel-gray cottonmouths, copperheads and rattlers (10). Reef further reveals that demands of slavery led to negligence of African children, who ate from communal troughs, using their hands or seashells, they would devour meals like a bunch of wild pigs and the one who ate the fastest, got the most. Poor nutrition and unhealthy life style of pregnant mothers, led to poor birth weights and high mortality rates (55). Eventually it was the Civil War in 1865 that brought an end to African American slavery, but they continued to find limited opportunity of economic growth and development in America (Axelrod 12). Lawson and Lawson state that the poor population increased dramatically during the Great Depression that occurred during the 1930 as a result of the agricultural affairs of the previous decade. The overproduction of farm commodities led to the decline of agricultural goods, this caused many farmers to quit their job and to move towards the urban areas, exhausting the already meager resources present there. The Lawsons pointed out that the urban employment rate dwindled to almost 25% in the year 1932 and the number of homeless increased, the ‘Hobo’ became the icon for the beggars of the colonial period (18). Duncan states that the Great Depression threatened to promote racism in the society since the ‘prairie’ people were in the position to fully exploit and benefit from the surplus in the agricultural production while the ‘hill’ folks were in the danger of being kept away from this economical benefit (221). The practice called buying on margin where stockholders purchase share in prospect of acquiring profit caused the prices of these shares to reach sky rocketing prices, but rising interest rates by the US Federal Reserves had led to reduce business spending, production and employment (Mansbach & Rafferty 514). On black Tuesday, 1929, the stock market crashed which originated the worst depression in the history of United States, closing down banks and businesses ( Axelrod 14). Axelrod further wrote that many people were rendered homeless, across the nation, many former bankers were reduced to standing in the line to get bread with the unemployed labors, The Great Depression had deeply wounded the self-esteem of the Americans and had them begging for food and shelter (14). This event marked the beginning of the Second World War. In 1890, Jacob Riis published How The Other Half Lives, an illustration of the conditions in the poor tenements of New York City, the manuscript had photographs depicting the horrendous lifestyles of the people living in the slums of the city, which caused large scale awareness related to widespread poverty and raised questions regarding the problem, the nation had long chosen to ignore ( Bartlett 1998). Bartlett further states that the revelations had some amount of impact on the national political agenda but the First World War intervened (6). Now that more than a century has elapsed, the United States is still in the grasp of persistent poverty. Bartlett revealed that the families’ income that fell below the line were considered officially poor and the line was estimated by calculating the cost of food sufficient enough to maintain health, he further states that in the year 1994, the line was defined by $15,000 for the family of four, which approximated the expense per person per meal to be $1.15 which meant that 14.5 % of the population lived in poverty in that year (6). According to the official poverty measure, in 2007, 12.5% of the population (over 37 million people) was poor. Also, a larger share of the population was poor in 2006 than in the year 2000 despite greater economic growth that occurred during the time period ( Mishel, Bernstein & Sheirholz 298). Arrighi and Maurne, further demonstrate statistically the dramatic shifts in poverty that have adversely influenced the children, they say, that the children have become a small proportion of the population due to the decline in birthrates and increased longevity. However, poor families with children have increased, form about two third of all poor families in 1960 to three-fourth in 2005, this trend, they say is reflective of the fact that now poor families having children are either of African American or Hispanic descent or managed by women alone (12). Its also worth noting, as described by the same authors, that between the years 1960 and 2005, the poverty rates for all families and all person fell from 18 to 10 percent for families and 22 to 13 percent for persons, poverty rates for black families fell from 39% in 1967 to 28% in 2005. But on the contrary, the child poverty remains approximately the same with 18% in 1975 to 17% presently (12-13). Axelrod, revealed that in the year 2008, the poverty line of a family of four in the US was $21, 200 (20). He argues that being poor in America is quite different from being poor in Somalia or Bangladesh, being poor in a land that has all the resources to begin with, adds to the people’s urges of having those resources at every individual’s disposal too (21). When Iceland compares poverty in United Stated and poverty in Africa and South Asia, his inference leads to the fact that United States has the highest Gross National Product (GNP) in the world compared to the population of the latter who earn $1 or $2 a day. But on the Contrary, United States have the highest level of both absolute and relative poverty than other rich countries in the European continent (6-7). Iceland is of the opinion that the persistence of poverty in the United States is not the direct outcome of individual’s failings but structural factors such as the way poverty is defined and the features of the economic system that originate concepts such as income inequality, social inequities and the policy responses that shape the trends (2). There are many ways of going broke in the United Stated, but these days, Axelrod points out that the lack of health insurance is the most common route to bankruptcy, Sheila Wessenburg, he says, was one of the victims of breast cancer whose treatment inflicted enormous economic restraints on her family, which ended with her husband losing his job who used to previously bring home a six figure income. He also stated that fixed expenses, such as rent, debt issued from credit card balances and college loans devour chunks of family income (21). A speech in which John Edwards spoke about the future of America in the National Press Club on 22nd June 2006, he pointed out that the America we want to achieve in the next twenty years should be on its way to the end of poverty and whose health insurance would cater to a wider degree of population, an America whose middle class is thriving to make a better future for themselves and their children. He further added that in order to eradicate completely, poverty from America, a ‘Working Society’ should be established which must built lessons from the past to mould the better future, and the true essence of that society should be work, which will not only be the source of pay check, but also dignity and independence (Hartmann 139) to its workers. Works Cited Arrighi, Barbera & David J. Maume. Child Poverty in America Today: Families and Children. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.Print Axelrod, Joan. Poverty in America: Cause or Effect? London: Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Print Bartlett, Randall. The crisis of America’s cities. New York: M.E.Sharpe, 1998. Print Duncan, Cynthia. Rural Poverty in America. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1992. Print Hartmann, Tom. Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision: Easyread Edition, Auckland: ReadHowYouWant.com, 2009. Print. Iceland, John. Poverty in America: a handbook. California: University of California Press, 2006.Print Lawson, Russell & Benjamin A. Lawson. Poverty in America: an encyclopedia, 2008, Print Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein & Heidi Shierholz. The State of Working America, 2008/2009. New York: Cornell University Press, 2009.Print Reef, Catherine. Poverty in America. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.Print White, Shane & Grahan J. White. The sounds of slavery: discovering African American history through songs, sermons and speech. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. Print Read More