Turning Poverty Into an American Crime by B Ehrenreic - Article Example

 The sad case of Al Szekely, a veteran who is arrested for being homeless despite the fact that he has no home to go to and has to sleep outside. Ehrenreich examines several causes of poverty such as recession, which leave poor people venerable to harassment and ill health since they cannot afford health insurance. In addition, this results in an increased dependency on governmental support through welfare. Injuries may also be a cause of poverty, for instance, Al Szekely who was turned destitute by a wound obtained, ironically in defense of his country.

This rendered him an easy target for brutal overenthusiastic police officers (Ehrenreic, 2011).The writer proposed that to deal with the problem of poverty the best solution is to avoid doing things that cause people to remain poor furthermore; the authorities should also avoid criminalizing the poor. In my opinion, the writer makes a valid point because poverty has often being associated with crime and poor people are often unfairly treated. If people were paid well for the jobs they did and were not discriminated by virtue of their economic class, the connection between poverty and crime may stop looking so natural.