Review on poverty - Article Example

Article Review Regardless of how one measures poverty within the United s, it must be understood to effect women and children disproportionately. Within such an understanding, the impacts of poverty upon children and single mothers are especially profound. As such, Randy Albelda in her piece "Time Binds: US Antipoverty Policies, Poverty, And The Well-Being Of Single Mothers” discusses the broad randing impacts that poverty has upon these two groups and the way in which a continuous lack of oversight and knowledge, on the part of policymakers, has left the United States with little to no real success after over 40 years of a “War on Poverty”.

The author argues that whereas there are many issues that leaders within government and society seek to discuss and ameliorate, the fundamental issue of poverty is one that is so important that it defines many of the other issues that are related to it. In a way, the issue of poverty is so great that it can be seen as the fundamental societal issue of society and humanity in general. Due to the fact that the existence of poverty has direct effects on health, life outlook, level of education, salary outlook, and the propensity to crime that an individual might be tempted, the reader can aptly see the true impact that poverty can have on every aspect of society as well as nearly every aspect of the individual that must live within its constraining reality.

As a function of realizing this, the following few paragraphs will attempt to highlight and underscore the degree to which poverty creates something an alternate reality for the individuals within a society that are forced to integrate with such a construct. Firstly, the author points to the fact that poverty should be understood as a construct that strikes at the very ability of the individual to live as the rest of society. In such a way, a key level of humanity is robbed from them; keeping them from having the life that others enjoy so seemingly painlessly.

In such a way, the level to which the individual can seek to raise themselves from their unfortunate situation. Due to the fact that access to capital and savings is necessarily non-existent for the individual within poverty, education is also out of reach. Without a chance at a higher education, the level and extent to which they can hope to attain a higher standard of living is all but lost (Albelda 190). This hopelessness that is born out of not having any opportunity oftentimes drives individuals living within poverty towards crime; seeing this as an easy means to escape the monetary constraints of the life that they find themselves trapped within.

Whereas poverty affects all individuals, not just the ones suffering from material want, crime can be said to affect the society in an even stronger way. Due to the fact that crime necessarily puts individuals within society at risk, it also increases the amount of money that needs to be spent up on law enforcement efforts as well as acting as a cancer and a rot for many cities and population centers around the United States. Lastly, from the individual’s standpoint, poverty acts as something of an endemic rot that slowly reduces the level of optimism that can be seen in life.

Due to the fact that the individual is so focused upon meeting their material needs, appreciation for an recognition of the simpler and more profound aspects of life, relationships, and family cannot fully be understood. Due to the level to which poverty robs the individual and society of the level of humanity that has herein been described, it can readily be noted that poverty represents something of an umbrella term for which many of the societal issues that the current system faces must seek to integrate with.

Rather than choosing to grapple with each of these externalities in a separate manner, the far better approach would be to realize that poverty represents the most fundamental harm and seek a better means of reducing its existence and occurrence. In such a way, the article points to the fundamental weakness of the approach to poverty that has thus far been engaged. Although the author denotes the fact that the overall awareness of poverty has been increased and key levels of benefits have been extended to those suffering from extreme poverty within the United States, a clear and salient argument is made against merely expanding these programs or extending this struggle without first coming a to a clear delineation of the fact that poverty does not equally effect each and ever stakeholder within society.

In such a way, the reader is left with the clear and definitive understanding that further focus should be paid towards women and children within society and the way in which they integrate with poverty. Works Cited Albelda, Randy. "Time Binds: US Antipoverty Policies, Poverty, And The Well-Being Of Single Mothers." Feminist Economics 17.4 (2011): 189-214. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.