Living within poverty level can be a hard day-to-day struggle for anyone. I know this from my personal experiences growing up. Also in the book The Short And Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Jeff Hobbs, the author; describes how Rob and his mother went through life in poverty. Poverty is defined as, "the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor" (Dictonary.com, 2017). I always think of living pay check to pay check and having the uncertainty of not knowing if you have enough money for everything. Jackie Peace, Rob's mother; lived in East orange in poverty. She worked in the hospital making very little. "The kitchen job at St. Mary's was the first in which she earned
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As a child, my parents were divorced while I was still young. My mother raised my three older siblings and myself. I remember my mother would work more than the typical 40 hour work weeks. I knew as a family we lived pay check to pay check. My mother always made sure we had the essentials first, such as a roof over our head and food in our stomachs. If, my siblings or I wanted something we had to work for it. My siblings, including myself went out and got jobs as soon as we were old enough. We would contribute to the household to help out. As soon as I started earning money on my own, I no longer asked my mother to buy things for me. At a young age I knew what responsibility was and how to understand the difference between a want and a …show more content…
In the United States in January 2017, it was reported "The official poverty rate is 14.5%, meaning 45.3 million people in the US live in poverty, up by over 8 million since 2008. An additional 97,3 million (33%) of people living in the United States are low-income, defined as income below twice the federal poverty line, or $47,700 for a family of four. Taken together, this means that 48% of the US population is poor or low income, 1 in every 2 people" (Current US Poverty Statistics, 2017). To me personally this seems like a very large number and more people are just or barley getting by making a
As a child, my parents were divorced while I was still young. My mother raised my three older siblings and myself. I remember my mother would work more than the typical 40 hour work weeks. I knew as a family we lived pay check to pay check. My mother always made sure we had the essentials first, such as a roof over our head and food in our stomachs. If, my siblings or I wanted something we had to work for it. My siblings, including myself went out and got jobs as soon as we were old enough. We would contribute to the household to help out. As soon as I started earning money on my own, I no longer asked my mother to buy things for me. At a young age I knew what responsibility was and how to understand the difference between a want and a …show more content…
In the United States in January 2017, it was reported "The official poverty rate is 14.5%, meaning 45.3 million people in the US live in poverty, up by over 8 million since 2008. An additional 97,3 million (33%) of people living in the United States are low-income, defined as income below twice the federal poverty line, or $47,700 for a family of four. Taken together, this means that 48% of the US population is poor or low income, 1 in every 2 people" (Current US Poverty Statistics, 2017). To me personally this seems like a very large number and more people are just or barley getting by making a