Reflection: Poverty In America

Opening Reflection As someone who has never lived in fear of losing my home or of not having enough to eat, there are certainly aspects of poverty that I have had little exposure to and struggle to understand. As both of my parents are now disabled, however, I understand what it is like to live with a limited income and to be ever conscious of wasteful spending. Growing up, I lived in a rural North Carolina town, where the primary employment opportunities were farming and a chicken processing plant. Unemployment was low, as these fields and the service industries provided plenty of jobs, but with the exception of certain services, most of these jobs did not pay particularly well. In a small community, one rubs elbows with the other members of that community quite frequently. On my soccer team, for instance, one of my teammates was the son of immigrants who worked at the chicken factory and spoke little English, while another was the son of wealthy business owners. In this setting, I saw that people who were poor certainly had struggles, but also that they could be very happy. When I moved to the suburbs of a larger city, I interacted with people living near the poverty line far less frequently, instead having isolated contact with people living in extreme poverty. …show more content…
Some towns lacked even such things as clean running water, which we in America take for granted. Many people lived in houses that looked to be little more than assorted scrap lumber and corrugated metal nailed together. Upon returning to the US, I took a more in depth look at poverty, and learned some very surprising things. Approximately one in five children in the US lack consistent access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, while poverty may be more evident in Mexico than in the US, many nations are even worse-off, especially African, South American, and Southern Asian