Do you know any of the leading causes for the rise of deaths in the United States? Are you surprised the 1 out of every 7 kids are born into poverty in the U.S.? How have we become so oblivious to things that are happening all around us in our everyday lives?
Poverty over the years has gone down, but why have we as a society developed and are able to come up with new things all the time that fill our temporary needs, like technology, when the things that really need to be fixed, like poverty and a step towards ending it aren’t happening. Poverty is listed as the 13th most ‘popular’ cause of death in the United States, so it’s not in the top ten, but again it really shouldn’t be up there at all.
You will be shocked to find out the 3 states which have the highest poverty rate. First, is Mississippi, Second, New Mexico, and Lastly, is Arkansas… That is three states in which you go for vacation, or simply stop to take a layover in not knowing or even thinking that there might be people struggling, much fewer kids who are just praying to eat at all that day. “In 2016, 40.6 million Americans lived below the poverty line, ($24,563). The poverty rate for children was 18%.” – Census Income
People who also are struggling with the issues of poverty, have also seemed to struggle with some other issues in their life. Food Stamps, Government Funding, Criminal Records, Pregnancies, Abuse, Broken Families. They don’t all come from a wonderful childhood, some do and just seem to fall on bad luck and hit a bit of a rough patch for a little while, but most aren’t all that lucky.
The causes and effects of poverty seem to build on each other. Many people start having these issues when they are younger, being born into poverty. “1 out of 7 kids are born into poverty” – U.S. Census Bureau.
So imagine it like this, you are born into a family who is already low on income. You get sick and they can’t afford the care you need, so therefore your whole family gets stuck in the “poverty stage”. You are sick, and not able to afford what you or your family needs as necessities. You start getting sick and keep staying sick, and suddenly start missing school more and more, so there goes the education that you will be needing further down in your life. You are sick and not getting the education you need, and something like an unexpected bill comes up or something you have to pay and suddenly the government is kicking you out of your house. Therefore, you are homeless.
That situation was just that a made up example for me to show how fast someone’s life can change, what we don’t realize is that stuff like that happens all around us all of the time. People are struggling while we are sitting on our couches watching T.V.
People sometimes like to relate race with poverty, saying that some races are treated and held to a higher standard over others due to this and that. The same thing could also be said about Gender; some people think that Men are over women in this situation or vise versa. We think that due to how we have been taught, and what we have grown up with our whole life.
Some people like to think that the United States is a very first world nation, and that we are able to hide everything that we don’t want seen. We like to think that if we are able to cover it up and try to help fix the issue little by little then people wont notice it as much, but people have figured out what we are doing and have caught on.
Poverty has always been an issue for us, we have always been short on this or been not as good at that. Things over the years have stacked up and we aren’t able to solve them in the ways that we used to be able to. Todays world is a very different world, they didn’t have as many stereotypes or didn’t group people into groups and judge and treat them so poorly due to just their appearance, religion or the way that they live. Not everyone is able to go to a high-end school and high-end college, and get the best education therefore they can’t get the best jobs. But never should we judge them for that.
We all hit those rough spots, some people hit them more then others or some people hit them earlier in life and can’t always get out of that spot right away. Again, your childhood usually always affects how you grow up. The relationships you have, the place you grew up in, what your life truly was like.
“There are so many opportunities and there are places that will help these people out.” People tend to say this kind of stuff. What we don’t truly realize is the abuse mentally, sometimes physically that these people have suffered and are too scared to go ask or seek for the help that they need due to the backlash that may come.
People can and do take advantages of the system, yes. But we need to realize that not everyone is out to do this for wants, some people are actually doing this for the things that them and their families actually need because they don’t have anywhere else to turn and this honestly, may be their last resort. People are risking their lives to make sure that people stay safe, and some people who just want the extra cash and who actually have access to the stuff that could help them out, would rather cheat their way out and essentially ruin it because they don’t want to work for anything.
The poverty rate has gone up a ton in the last couple of years. Along with many other things, but specifically unemployment rate. Poverty continues to go up due to the lack of things that we need in order to live the “luxury life” we would like to live. Unemployment rates have gone up due to numerous amounts of things but when people start to get laid off and not as many work positions are open anymore then you have more and more people who don’t have jobs and who are out of work and are having to do whatever it takes for themselves and their families to make through, even day-by-day. Median wages have also seemed to play a major role in poverty, if your going to have people who can just get whatever job they are able to and have unemployment rates going up, people are going to be willing to work for a little less as long as they are still getting paid and still in work. A job could go from paying $11 an hour to $9 an hour because they are opening more positons to work and have more people wanting to work.
Gender again comes up, female and male jobs seemed to be split down the middle. A doctor used to just be looked at as a male job, and a nurse was more of a female job due to the female being the doctors “assistant”. So in people’s mind, one gender would get paid more then another no matter how harder, longer or what the job was. It was just the way that people used to think due to how history was laid out.
There are many books, papers, and theories about how poverty came along and how we can fix it ourselves without having to 100% rely on one another for help and how we are able to do it without cheating the system. But sometimes if a person isn’t willing to trying to help themselves and make sure their families have what they need, then there isn’t always a way you are able to help them.
Overall, as The United States as a whole we have allowed poverty to get this bad. What are we as a whole going to do to fix it? Yes, we can make shelters, and offer free this and that, but what about the people who truly can’t access it, what then? And what about the people who are cheating the system and taking stuff away from the people who truly need the help, the people who are truly struggling. Are we ever going to fix it, or are we just going to say that we tried and be satisfied?
References
- ‘Causes And Effects Of Poverty’. Cliffsnotes.Com, 2018, https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/sociology/social-and-global-stratification/causes-and-effects-of-poverty. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘Effects Of Poverty, Hunger And Homelessness On Children And Youth’. Http://Www.Apa.Org, 2018, http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘Facts About Child Poverty In The U.S.A. | Children International | US Poverty Facts’. Children International, 2018, https://www.children.org/global-poverty/global-poverty-facts/facts-about-poverty-in-usa. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘Poverty In The United States | RESULTS’. Results.Org, 2018, https://www.results.org/issues/poverty_in_the_united_states. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘Top Effects Of Poverty | The Borgen Project’. The Borgen Project, 2018, https://borgenproject.org/5-effects-poverty/. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘Why Poverty Persists’. Nber.Org, 2018, https://www.nber.org/digest/jun06/w11681.html. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
- ‘2.4 The Consequences Of Poverty – Social Problems: Continuity And Change’. Open.Lib.Umn.Edu, 2018, http://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/2-4-the-consequences-of-poverty/. Accessed 26 Oct 2018.
