The Issue of Poverty in the United States - Literature review Example

Introduction: Poverty is a one of the critical topics of modern world. IN almost every paper there is a detail discussion about this topic, there arenumber of article also in this subject. In this paper the main objective is to analyze the objective of two different poverty papers published in two different sources, one in the Washington Post and other one is in the Feminist Economist journal. The article in the newspaper was published on December 2013 and it was based on how the US able to reduce the level of poverty in the country with the help of safety net program (The Washington Post, 2013). The article in the journal is about the anti-poverty policy to reduce the poverty and take care of the single mother (Feminist Economics, 2011). The report of the newspaper is more broad in perspective whereas the article in the journal focusing on a special case of resolvingpoverty in the USA considering a special class; i.e. single mother. Thesis of the Paper: The paper is an analysis on Poverty in the US. Both of the chosen articles focus on the issue of poverty in USA and related policies. Thesis for this paper is: US government policies to combat poverty has been effective, encompassing all classes and populace. Analysis of the Article: The Washington Post Article: U.S. poverty rate decreased over past half-century thanks to safety-net programs Goldfarb in this article discusses about the US policy about reducing poverty rate in the country throughout last 50 years. The article is based on the safety net program designed by the US government to prevent the growth in the poverty rate. The article is being analyzed based on following heads: Audience: Generally the educated group of people in the US is the main reader of the Washington Post. Generally people belong to upper, upper-middle and middle class, educated group of people who like to get updated knowledge about the government policy in the USA regarding various social, political, economic matters are the readers of this newspaper. The topic relates to the economy as well as government policy for the common people so that they can get enough knowledge about the function of the US government. Purpose: The main objective of this paper to inform the common people about the government policy regarding poverty management by the US government. It is also an evaluating paper which critically analyzes the government policy of poverty management like safety net program and the performance of this program in last 50 years’ time. It is a critical as well as informative report about the poverty management by the US government for the common man. Style of the Article: The article is mainly a economical review of a particular government process to inform the common man about the government work regarding the poverty management. The report is supported by other’s opinion as well regarding the topic which helps the readers to understand the matter from a broader perspective. The facts and figures, easy language, absence of economic terms is helpful for the common man to get an idea about the same. Tone of the Author: Goldfarb (2010) in his article discuss about US government policy about poverty management in the country. He uses a business tone which is also sophisticated, unpretentious, concise and confident. He mentions the success rate of the safety-net policy of the US government to control poverty and support the fact by the data of other research as well. “the safety net helped reduce the percentage of Americans in poverty from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012. The results were especially striking during the most recent economic downturn, when the poverty rate barely budged despite a massive increase in unemployment.” (Goldfarb, 2010). His article supports the US government policy of Safety-net to reduce the poverty but does not impose personal bias on the readers. Feminist Economics: Time Bind- US Antipoverty Policies, Poverty and the Well-Being of Single Mother Albelda (2011), in this article discuss about the US antipoverty policies with special focus on the role played by the US government policy to take care of the Single mother in the USA. The article is giving an idea about the impact of the different policies taken by the US government to help out the single mother in the country that are in the poverty line or below it. Audience: The audiences of this article are mainly the scholarly people, students, teachers and researchers who associated with the research in socio economic dimensions especially the poverty and single woman in the country. The US government also needs to read this kind of article to get an idea about what the scholars and the economist believes about the approach taken by the government. Purpose: The main purpose of the author is to discuss about the poverty prevention plan of the US government especially considering the single mother in the country. The purpose of this paper is mainly critically reviewing the topic with emphasis on different steps like employment opportunity, financial help given by the government so that the overall process can be critically reviewed with other country as well as the overall process of poverty prevention. Style: The style of this paper is more research oriented and journalistic. The report is consisted of various financial terms; facts and figures also being used by the author to prove the facts. The entire report is based on the review of analysis of other authors, what they feel about the same and how much their analysis is relevant to the topic. The paper is mainly based on the secondary research like many other scholarly journals. It is more a literature review with focus on what different authors are saying about the policy of the US government. His style is more like review, analysis and critical measurement of the matter from an economist point of view. Tone of the Author: The author mentioned women in the society who have enough time to take care about the children, do the work in the family for better management of the family and all. This concept is mainly based on the low employment trend among women. But the single mother, who are there in the poverty line have to do some work to ensure their family is going smoothly. But sometimes some factors like low salary and less opportunity from the employer single mother faces difficulty. The US government to solve this situation introduces different plans and authors review those in line of the poverty and policy. The author uses a logical deductive tone or approach in the paper. His tone is didactic as he tries to educate the audience using a scholarly approach. Employment promotion policy for poor single mother; anti-poverty program for poor single mother in the society are some of the heads which review the position of the single mother (Albeldaa, 2011, 197-199). He gives importance to details in order of priority just like journalistic writing style. Not giving importance to women in the administration is the reason behind the problem they faced in the society and in his view giving value to their time, providing them the opportunity for work, government support –this can help the US single mother to come out from poverty. Conclusion: Both the articles are important from their own perspective, The first one, i.e. the report published in the newspaper is a tool for the common people to understand the reason behind the poverty in the US, how the factors can affect the poverty, how government policy can protect or play an important role in the prevention of the same by implementing various policies. The newspaper article can be a source for the people to know about the facts and figures, can use this as a data for future study and also get knowledge about the govern work. On the other hand the scholarly article is more of an educational paper written from the hard core economic perspective and also it can be used as a source for research by the academicians, research scholars and students for their study and by the government officials to understand the economic perspective of the social policies and objectives. The Journal gives a more complex and more specific viewpoint of different individuals with respect to conditions of single mother and poverty whereas the newspaper report is more of an overall analysis of the poverty redemption method by the government policy. References: Albelda, R.; (2011); Time Bind- US Antipoverty Policies, Poverty and the Well-Being of Single Mother; Feminist Economist; 17.4, 189-214 Goldfarb A. Z.; (2010), U.S. poverty rate decreased over past half-century thanks to safety-net programs; The Washington Post, retrieved on 9.2.2014 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/study-us-poverty-rate-decreased-over-past-half-century-thanks-to-safety-net-programs/2013/12/09/9322c834-60f3-11e3-94ad-004fefa61ee6_story.html Read More