Reducing Poverty in the USA - Term Paper Example

Reducing Poverty in the US Poverty has been synonymous with human settlement through out the human history, with the society divided into the variouseconomic classes. In the US, poverty levels had steadily gone down especially after the economic recession of the 1990s. However, poverty levels have once again shot up after the recent global recession, which affected almost all sectors of the economy, with this recession being described as the worst to hit the country since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Historically, the lowest poverty levels in the US were recorded in the 1970s during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Poverty reduction was significantly achieved because of the initiated efforts of the War on Poverty. Poverty reduction has since been viewed as an achievable fete, if the right measures are put in place. Critics have projected that the nature of poverty being persistent even during the time of abundance, makes poverty a perennial problem that could actually be termed as impossible to solve. However, the government institutions and various programs have been essential in reducing the level of poverty in the society. The most effective programs include the Social Security and Earned Income Tax Credit. Cash assistance to the needy and various community organizations and projects; have also been implemented, with the in-kind programs also being critical in the reduction of poverty. Food stamps and housing aid extended to the members of the public has also helped to reduce poverty. The proponents of such poverty reduction initiated programs have projected that more emphasis and funds allocation to such programs would easily eradicate poverty. In the US, the Census Bureau is the organ responsible with poverty estimation calculations. Poverty is, however, not a uniform phenomena in the society. This means that the levels of poverty have been depicted to be selective facilitated by a number of factors that can easily be tackled. Since it has been shown that the poverty levels are selective, then poverty cannot be said to be without solutions. Reducing poverty can thus be achieved if the right kind of analysis was to be taken into consideration. For example, poverty is dependent on various reasons. If these variables could be critically analyzed with the appropriate measures and efforts geared towards tackling them instituted, then poverty reduction is very much possible. Survey has shown that poverty in the US is race oriented. The Blacks and Hispanics have been shown to be the most affected group by poverty, more than the whites and Asians (Garcia, 2011). In addressing the racial disparities, it would then be possible to tackle the primary causes of poverty in the respective races. Human beings exhibit similar universal traits, with their needs, wants and irritability being similar in almost all parts of the globe. It is thus disturbing and raises a point of concern to see that after more than two hundred years of independence, racial aspects are still predominant in the characterization of the American society. The Constitution has categorically stated that all citizens, irrespective of gender or race are equal before the law and should enjoy equal privileges. Since the Constitution has guaranteed equal rights for all American citizens, then it means that if the poverty levels are still being dictated by racial grouping, then the apparent imminent problems of race have been ignored. In the campaign against poverty, then the problems arising because of race should first be tackled. The family composition has also played a major role in the poverty indications parameters. Survey has shown that marriages tend to reduce the poverty levels. The families headed by females without a husband but having children have been indicated to have a poverty level of about thirty percent. Poverty for married couple has been indicated to be about five percent. This shows that social aspects of the society have a major impact on the poverty level and poverty reduction. Many single mothers are poor because of reasons that are undesired or because of reasons that could have been easily tackled. Some of the interviewed single mothers expressed dissatisfaction with their status of not being married. The social values and importance of the institution of marriage should thus be emphasized. In the contemporary modern world, economic hardships have forced people to work for long hours and to combine jobs. (Rivlin, 2010) Encouraging people to value the institution of marriage would drastically reduce the single parenthood roles and in the process reducing the poverty levels. Teenage pregnancies in most cases result to single parenthood. Teenage parenthood contributes to a large number of teenagers dropping out of learning institutions. Dropping out of school has an immense effect on the social economic status of such teenagers. Without proper academic qualifications results to the failure of securing a stable job that offers economic security. Therefore, such teenagers remain poor, as the competitive modern world requires top-level academic qualifications. In tackling poverty and in significantly reducing the poverty levels, it would be important to tackle such issues of teenage pregnancy, with he appropriate measures being put in place to ensure teenagers do not become pregnant. Those who do become pregnant should be assisted in ensuring they finish school. The society has been hit by the high levels of divorce cases. Divorce in most cases culminates to the sharing of the resources. The division of once a compact family means that there will be division of once shared economic resources and responsibilities. Divorce cases have become a fashionable trend of the modern world with the economic repercussions not being considered. Divorces in some cases involve legal battles and tussles that involve huge spending. It would be, therefore, important to discourage divorce cases as much as possible and if people must divorce, then the divorce issue should be amicably handled and settled. In the US, poverty level has also been historically dictated by regions. The South has historically remained poor. Regional consideration should thus be crucial in tackling the poverty levels. The poverty of the regions dates back to the slavery period and the civil war. The reliance on plantation slavery by the South saw the South lagging behind in industrialization. The American Civil War had negative economic impacts on the country but the South was the hardest hit. If more emphasis and resources were focused on regions, with extensive research providing the most suitable economic endeavors for the regions, then poverty reduction would be achieved. According to Rector (2008), the people classified as poor in the US are not poor as such compared to the meaning of the word in the global context. He states that the government report shows that more than two thirds of the people classified as poor have satellite television and air conditioning system. He further states that as per the definition of the term poor by the government, the majority of people classified as poor by government reports have the basic essential commodities. More to that ‘poor’ Americans have a car, clothes washer and dryer, microwave, refrigerator and considerable medical care. On the global platform, such people are not considered as poor and in fact, in some countries they are considered as rich. Rector points out that the US has very low poverty levels and the escalating poverty levels should be blamed on the system. He says that the country is experiencing high poverty levels than it should, because the system is importing poverty from abroad. This imported poverty is terms of immigrants, both legal and illegal with over ten million migrants in the US lacking college level education and thus are mostly likely to strain the economy by being unproductive and thus remaining poor. He says a quarter of all the poor families in the country are immigrant families with one in every eight poor children being from an illegal immigrant. This is authentic statistics as provided by the Census Bureau. Cook (2007) has stated that more than forty millions Americans are officially poor with about ninety million struggling to make ends meet and thus could be classified as poor or near the poverty line. He added that in addressing the poverty problem, then policies must be put in place that ensures the gap between the rich and the poor is narrowed. The rich persons account about one percent of the population yet their income is more than twenty percent of the total income. He states that when the poverty levels were down during the 1970s, the government failed to enact basic income guarantee for all Americans. The government had all its attention on the private sector to provide the much-needed jobs and income. However, this did not happen as the capitalistic nature of the system only allowed the rich to get richer and the poor to become poorer. The much focus on institutions should be changed to individual members of the society. This is because every time institutions are left with the task of driving the economy forward, there emerges recession that dismantles these institutions affecting heavily on the economy and the citizens. Decentralizing the economic power of institutions and investing on citizens would ensure that there is consistency of incomes even when there is recession. When economic gains were made in the 1970s, the 1973-1983 recessions badly affected the war on poverty as institutions that are delegated with the mandate of ensuring economic stability started falling to pieces. This was later to occur in the early and late 2000. Economic crunch results to loss of jobs and increased inflation rates and thus high cost of living. If there was more emphasis on raising the economic status of the individual people rather the institutions, then economic crisis that occur every now and then would be well taken care of. In empowering the people, structures for acquiring capital to start businesses should be put in place. The current system benefits the financial institutions like banks more than those seeking loans. One way people remain poor is the high interest rates on loans and advances. Lending processes should be in such a way that any person can borrow without the high rates. Small businesses entrepreneurs should also be guarded from the big companies with individual efforts being guarded from the liberalized markets. If poverty was to be addressed appropriately and efficiently, then the appropriate measures should be taken to tackle the root causes of poverty rather than the symptoms. One of the effective measures that should be taken is to enact strict laws on immigrants, especially illegal immigrants. All illegal immigrants should be deported. The labor laws should also be revised to raise the age bracket of immigrants that can legally be considered for hired labor, for example, be raised to twenty years. This would discourage the illegal immigrants who are flooding the US labor market in search of wages especially from the neighboring countries like Mexico. Once it is made illegal to hire illegal immigrants in the labor markets, then potential immigrants would be deterred. The legal immigration laws should also be revised so that in the future, the immigrants moving to the US must be skilled and having high academic credentials. Unskilled and lowly educated immigrants are one of the major contributors to the rising poverty levels. If laws were enacted requiring immigrants to be educated, then dependency level would also decrease. In the modern world, poverty is closely associated with lack of education. Raising the status of entry to the country would encourage people to study hard and this would not only reduce the poverty levels in the US but also in other countries. Learned immigrants would generate much income to invest in the US and in their countries of origin. Poverty is also closely related with poor parental care as low levels of parental work has been proven to contribute heavily to child poverty. Poverty reduction in this sector can be achieved by setting strict work requirements of which should be attached to welfare benefits received by poor families. For poor families to receive government aid, family members must engage in income generating ventures. This would encourage the parents especially the single mothers to acquire jobs no matter how little they generate. This would discourage laziness and overdependence consequently reducing child poverty. Non- marital childbearing must also be discouraged as no child bearing is because of lack of contraceptive. Most of the children born out of wedlock have fathers who can be easily identified and at times have maintained cordial relationship with the mothers. To encourage and promote the institution of marriage, then the government should reduce the anti-marriage penalties embedded in the regular means-tested social welfare institutional programs. Skills should also be offered to young couples to help them to strategically plan for their future. Voluntary counseling and educational programs should be developed and institutionalized. This would aid young women in preventing them from becoming pregnant out of wedlock by showing them the importance of the institution of marriage to both the parents and the child (Barr, 1993). Poverty reduction would influence the various sectors of economy and society. Reduced poverty would reduce crime rates. Most of the people engage in crime because of economic constraints. Reduced poverty would also reduce cases of drug indulgence and drug trafficking. This would save a lot of money that is assigned to the drug war. The government would also save a lot of money used in aiding the poor members of the society. Poverty reduction on the contrary would encourage more immigrants to settle in the US to escape poverty in their countries. References Barr, N. (1993). The economics of the welfare state. Stanford: Stanford University Press Cook, R. (2007). Sustainable economics to end global poverty. Retrieved from http://www.stwr.org/poverty-inequality/poverty-in-america-progressive-schemes-to-reduce-poverty-will-fail-without-monetary-reform.html Garcia, G. (2011). Mexican American and immigrant poverty in the United States. New York: Springer Rector, R. (2008). Understanding and reducing poverty in America. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/understanding-and-reducing-poverty-in-america Rivlin, G. (2010). Broke, USA: from pawnshops to poverty. New York: Harper Business INC Read More