A Causal Analysis of Poverty in Eastern Kentucky - Essay Example

A Causal Analysis of Poverty in Eastern Kentucky Poverty means much more than not having enough income to buy basicneeds like clothes, food and to acquire a decent shelter. According to the latest federal statistics, poverty rate in Kentucky ranks the highest amongst the US States. The 2010 census revealed that 14,000 households in Northern Kentucky’s eight counties were living below the poverty level. Families earning $22,300 in Kentucky can afford a monthly rent no more than $381; moreover, families have utility bills greater than they can afford. More than 33,600 people in Campbell, Boone and Kenton are illiterate; in addition, low-income families struggle with health care costs. Considering that I grew up in the middle class suburbs of relatively prosperous middle-size city of Lexington, I underestimated the depth of the depravity that people experience in some of the eastern counties. This was until I had first-hand experience with a few people who lived in Kentucky, who will help in my analysis of the causes and effects of poverty in the region. My first encounter was with Jane who is dependent on food stamps monthly for buying groceries, who has had to devise another method to ensure her family sets food on the table. Immediately after getting the stamps, she hurries to the supermarket and purchases vegetables and fruits, as well as dairy products and meat. Like many mothers with low income in the area, Jane knows she has to buy these products using her food stamps because she sometimes supplements her grocery with non-perishables like pasta and canned food. However, Jane had lagged behind with her utility bill and one morning her power connection suffered interruption. Her struggles to persuade the power company to connect her met deaf ears; therefore, all the food in the refrigerator went stale and she threw it away. The life that Jane lived through that given month was horrible as she had no other source of food or income till the next food stamps monthly. On the other hand, Vivian a young girl who dreams one day to graduate from high school lives a peculiar life whereby, while her colleagues buy school dresses and arrange for parties, she struggles to look after her younger brothers and sisters. As other families make college selections, hers is to select between medical care and welfare. Her father is a truck driver and that means she has to assume the role of family caretaker. Although the family is not homeless, they have only $140 each month to purchase food. Vivian’s father suffers a heart condition and obesity due to the high-fat foods that form most part of the diet of low-income families. Her father has to depend on his small income to cater for family needs as well as his medical care as he cannot afford health insurance. It is a sad fact that a sizeable portion of Americans still has to choose between working to earn a living and getting health insurance. My next encounter was with Mildred who supports her four children with the $12.45 an hour she earns as an assistant attending to people suffering from brain injuries and dementia. Her father raised her since her mother was a cocaine addict; however, Mildred gave birth to her first child at 16, but still managed to complete high school. She later bore two children fathered differently; one is in jail for 36 years of assault. The family depends on relatives who occasionally buy clothes for the children, pay grocery bill, or take the children out to a park. They lived for three years with Mildred’s cousin, before relocating to a small, two-bedroom apartment. She would like to shift, after three gunshot incidents within the neighborhood, but she cannot afford to. She protects her children by restraining them from playing far from the front or back doors of the apartment; she will not let them go to the playing field and tells her 10-year old son that he cannot play in the neighbor’s compound because there is no supervision from her in that compound. The causes of poverty in Kentucky range from lack of public services and job opportunities to health hazards and its rural environment, which are so widespread that people view them as generational in nature (Burch, 17). Kentucky region is generally considered rural, with close to half of its occupants engaged in mining, agriculture and heavy industry. Slightly over 42 percent of Kentucky’s population of over 20 million residents is rural; therefore, the quality of education in such rural areas is always substandard, especially in low-income areas. Youths living in rural areas of the United States do not dream of college degrees compared to urban youths, and low education translates into lower earning power (George 12). Kentucky has a hard time attracting industries that often offer better-paying jobs to the people into their area. Owing to the absence of adequate infrastructure, investors or large companies locally and internationally will be reluctant to go to Kentucky. Consequently, residents typically depend on the scarce industries located near their homes for jobs, which contributes to poverty in Kentucky (George 78). As a result, Kentucky communities more often do not have enough resources to fund water services and water improvements which aggravates their poverty levels. Due to unavailability of basic public services, social, environmental and health hazards are rampant in Kentucky. This is evidenced whereby more than a quarter of Kentucky residents lack connection to a community water system and have to depend on private wells for drinking water. In addition, close to half of entire households have on-site waste disposal as opposed to community systems of utility. Consequently, poor health may aggravate the odds that people will encounter hence remaining in poverty (Eller 105). Furthermore, many communities in Kentucky lack telecommunications infrastructure because access to internet service and telephone can be difficult to install in rural areas without sufficient funding (Estersohn 24). The long-term poverty in Kentucky is to remain constant or even increase due to lack of these vital services. For instance, without telecommunications, schools are not able to provide distant learning programs for rural students. The absence of high-speed internet access in Kentucky adds to its challenge in attracting new investors (George 98). Racial, economic, class, and gender discrimination is sometimes rampant in rural areas like Kentucky. This form of discrimination may continue to block opportunities for people with poor backgrounds condemning them to life-long and generational poverty status. Therefore, prolonged neglect regarding poor people’s needs often leads to generational poverty in Kentuck (George 113). In conclusion, the rate of poverty entrenchment in the larger Kentucky region is alarming and it calls for speedy action by the government of United States. In this century, people should not live from hand to mouth in a continent like United States. What reasons do we have as an economic powerhouse to extend assistance to Third World countries while we have people on our land struggling to survive and who live under a dollar per day?. Kentucky must come out of the bondage of poverty that is affecting the lives of millions of Americans. The government has to revise its strategy to handle this situation progressively, and in this way, the likes of Mildred and Vivian will have a reason to smile. Works Cited Burch, John. Owsley County, Kentucky, and the Perpetuation of Poverty (Contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies). North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2007. Print Eller, Ronald. Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2008. 105. Print Estersohn, Pieter. Kentucky: Historic Houses and Horse Farms of Bluegrass Country. China: The Monacelli Press, 2007. 24. Print George, Henry. Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry in the Cause of Industrial Depressions and Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth. Newyork: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Read More