Poverty in Politics - Research Paper Example

? POVERTY IN POLITICS Introduction Poverty entails the aspect of lacking some basics of life such as food, shelter and clothing. Since the emergence of economic crisis in 2008, majority of the citizens were left totally impoverished than they were before. In addition, the level of hunger in the United States was reported to have been increasing substantially each year. For example, the levels of poverty and hunger were reported to have increased substantially from 2008, 2009, 2010, up to 2013. Research indicates that the increase in levels of poverty and hunger in the United State could be attributed to poor Politics and economic systems. Empirical research evidence indicates that the united state political system had played a significant role of escalating cases of poverty and hunger across the entire economy. Whereby, instead of establishing measures that can help to address the issue of hunger and poverty. The United States political system tends too busy in executing policies that are jeopardizing the standards of living. For example, the government spends substantial amount of financial resources in Military rather than using this funds to execute programs that can improve both social and economic welfare of its citizens (World Hunger Information Service, paras1-2). Some of the methods used in carrying out this research include the application of case study research design whereby, the united state was selected out of 10 most economically powerful states, like China, Japan, Japan, Spain, Canada, Germany, Italy, United States, France and Russia. The united state was selected out of the above mention states using Simple random sampling techniques. Simple random sampling was utilized because it gives each element equal chances of inclusion into the study. Secondary research was, utilized in carrying out research on how poor politics in the United States led to escalating levels of poverty. In addition both qualitative and quantitative research was utilized to investigating the aspects of politics of poverty in the United States. Additionally, both qualitative and quantitative data obtained to substantiate this research. Whereby, qualitative data was analysed qualitatively while quantitative data was analysed quantitatively (Sreenivasan and Jyotsna,pp.76-89) Therefore, the study of this topic is important because it helps to gain an insight on the aspects of poverty in the United States as well as measures that can be put in place to address this problem. Additionally, the study of this topic is important because it indicates ways in which government officials, agencies, and policies affect poverty /have led to an increase in poverty levels. The topic had had further explained the impact of poverty in the United Stated as well as measures that can be put in place to address poverty problems. In addition, the study of this is important because it provides fundamental basis for further research. Literature Review Aspect of the politics of poverty in the United States Poor political and economic policies have been highly attributed to be the main cause of an increase in the levels of poverty among the United States citizens. Some of the main aspects of politics of poverty include: The united state has loosely organized political system that fails to address social and economic problems facing the U.S citizens. For example, the united state has only two political parties that are not well structure. This means that there are no enough watchdogs to scrutinize how the government is spending public resources and hence, the federal government tends to spend public financial resources in activities that bring fewer benefits to its citizens. In above connection, the united state political system had failed to address the issues facing its people but instead the federal government has been reported to make the situation even worse (Rector and Rachel,P.1-3) Empirical research evidence indicates that half of the United States budget tends to be allotted to ministry of security and defense. Whereby, military officials are handsomely paid at the expense of common men who are seriously squeezed by poverty and hunger. This means that the budget which could have been utilized to improve the standards of living of some poor Americans tend to be allotted to the Military department. Additionally, the levels of poverty have been escalated due to political favouritism of the rich people. Whereby, political leaders tend to conduct their campaigns by seeking support of the rich people by promising them that if they support them in their political campaigns, they would reciprocate back by giving the rich some favors liker subsidies and tax breaks (World Hunger Information Service, paras.3-5) This means that after the political leaders have been elected into power they tend to fulfill back promises they made to the rich. Some of those promises include giving the rich people some subsidies and tax breaks as agreed during political campaigns at the expense of the poor people. Therefore, this implies that poor politics have not only deteriorated economic standards of the United States but it has also led to an increase in the levels of poverty among the U.S citizen and especially those living in Ashanti’s (slums). It has been reported that Democratic Party used to be a party of the employed people and has continuously collaborating with the middle income earners to gain more political support at the expense of the poor people. This is a clear indication of how the poor people in the U.S have been neglected by their political leaders leading to an increase in poverty levels (World Hunger Information Service, p.1). Ways in which government officials, agencies, and policies affect poverty The government official and agencies, agencies and policies affect poverty in numerous ways. For example, research indicates that United States has implemented the policy of making united state a free enterprise economy. These policies had led to an increase in competition in the job market. Whereby, only the most highly qualified and educated people are the ones who are able to secure jobs. This means that low poor people who cannot afford to provide their children with the highest level of education may continue to remain poor in the rest of their lives if government fails to make amendments on its education policies. Therefore, this is a clear evidence of how government agencies and policies has led to an increase in poverty levels especially among poor families living in Ashanti’s(slums) who cannot afford to provide their kinds with the higher level of education due to lack of income. This further indicates that the vicious cycle of poverty would persist if government does not establish necessary mechanisms in place to address the problems of unemployment that are leading to an increase levels of poverty (Lawson, Russell and Benjamin,p.77). A poor government policy has led to the emergence of social and cultural inequalities whereby, despite having limited jobs in the United States economy, the available jobs are poorly paid. This has made the levels of poverty to escalate especially among the middle income earners. The rises of social classes have been reported to cause an increase in poverty levels. Whereby, most of the poor people have been totally segregated by the rich class of people. This has further subjected most them into immense stress. In addition, most of the poor people have started adopting certain pattern of life such as alcoholism, crime to mention just but a few of the unruly behaviors as they try to avoid realities of life. Poor response to national crises by the federal government have caused an increased in the levels of poverty among the citizens in the U.S. Failure of the united states government to establish disaster management mechanism had subjected most of its citizens to substantial losses. This has consequently led to an increase in poverty levels (Roy and Ananya, pp.65-78). Government agencies had further caused an increasing in the levels of poverty due to poor economic policies, For instance, President Obama launched an economic stimulus program after he was elected as the President of the U.S. Whereby, approximate 800 billion dollars were injected into the economy with an aim of improving the standards of living of the United States citizen and especially the poor. However, the program turned out to be a futile exercise because instead of having an improvement in standards of living among the U.S citizens, poverty levels increased. This is because an increase in the supply of money into an economy led to an increase in inflation rates. In addition, the failure of this program could have been attributed to the failure of government advisors to allocate the money to only three contractors namely: synergy Enterprise, social and science system, social and scientific system. Who were responsible of executing the contracts? Research indicates that, instead of ensuring the money helped to create lost jobs, the money went away with only three contractors who were awarded the contract by the government. This means that the fund were not properly disbursed in a manner that could have helped to create jobs and hence, leading to an increase in poverty levels (Eptein, paras.2-6). Measures for Addressing Politics of poverty The government should try to adjust its budget. Whereby, instead of allocating half of its budget into military, that money should be utilized to increase the levels of economic activities. For instance, more industries should be created because empirical research indicates that the United State is one of the richest countries in terms of capital as compared to other countries. This means that resources have not been fully exploited and therefore, if the Federal government could establish more industries and investment firms more jobs could be created. In above connection, the government should subsidize the cost of education to make it more affordable to the poor. This will give poor people an opportunity acquires the best jobs just like the rich people. In addition, making education affordable to the poor will make more people to become educated and this will help to promote innovation and creativity, whereby, fighting against poverty and hunger (Sheila, Linda, Joyce and Laura, paras.4-10). Conclusion Therefore, based on this research it was found that some aspects of politics of poverty were identified. Among the aspect include; a loosely organized political system with only two political parties. Whereby, there are no enough watchdogs to observe how the government spends its funds and hence, causing a misuse of funds by government officials. Another aspect of politics of poverty entails the manner in which the government allots its budget. It has been found that the government spends almost half of its budget on military rather than using these funds to carry out economic developments. This has consequently led to an increase in the levels of poverty in the United States. Another aspect entails the manner in which political leaders conduct their campaigns. Whereby, they tend to favour rich people who supported them during their campaigns at the expense of the poor by giving them subsidies and tax breaks. In addition, the manners in which the government officials, agencies, and policies affect poverty have been discussed above vas well as measures that can be put forth to address politics of poverty. It has been leant that to address poverty, political, social and economic policies should be amended. Conclusively, it can be learnt that poor political advice as well as poor economic policies by the senior government official tend to escalate poverty level as witnessed in the case of economic stimulus program established by the federal government after 2008 economic recession (Eptein, para.1).Therefore, proper policy adjustments should be carried out to address the issues of politics of poverty. Works Cited Eptein.J.Why Obama Stimulus Program Failed: A case study of Silver Spring. Maryland .8.12.2012.Web.6.11.2013.http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/08/why-obamas-stimulus-failed-a-case-study Lawson, Russell M, and Benjamin A. Lawson. Poverty in America: An Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2008. Internet resource. Rector.R and Rachel.S.Understanding Poverty in the United States. Surprising Facts about American Poor.Web.6.11.2013. Roy and Ananya. Calcutta Requiem: Gender and the Politics of Poverty. Delhi, India: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print. Sheila.R.Z.Linda.G.Joyce.M and Laura.W. Extreme Poverty Rising, Existing Government Programs could do more.Web.6.11.2003. Sreenivasan and Jyotsna. Poverty and the Government in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print. World Hunger Information Service .Hunger In United States: Hunger and Poverty Facts.Web.6.11.2013. Read More