Poverty In America Peter Edelman Analysis

Decent Essays
Poverty in America is getting worse day by day, in spite of the fact that America is not a poor country. Peter Edelman writes an essay Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It? which appeared on July 29, 2012 in the New York Times. He talks about the poverty, reason of increasing and the ways to get out of poverty. The number surprised me the most in essay is two because it shows the ugly picture of poverty as percentage is unsustainable and still growing. As poverty is increasing day by day and in the last decade has grown very rapidly as the poor got poorer and the rich got richer. I totally agree with Edelman that the change in attitude can help decrease poverty. There should not be any discrimination or any inequality. Moreover having

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Poverty is not always man made or caused by the people. Life happens and for some there is nothing they can do to get out of the way. Poverty isn’t something that can be changed just by ignoring it, it takes time and effort from a lot of different sources in order for a community to overcome its problems. The key to eliminating poverty is first to acknowledge that it can happen to anyone at anytime. Second, it takes a group effort and a will to change in order to fight poverty, we cannot give in to this fight because it is one that millions of americans face.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America is considered one of the most prosperous countries in the world. However, those who happen to experience poverty understand that this concept is somewhat blurry and subjective. One can say that living in Manteca CA with around $40,000 of income with two children to provide for and a rented apartment on the outskirts is practically a condition on the verge of beggarhood. Others would say that this is just an applicable federally defined poverty level where a citizen is living from hand to mouth calculating every coin spent on rents, food and day-care facilities. Whatever the terms, they mean nothing.…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The amount of people in poverty in America is ironic considering the United States is known to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Periodically, the belief that if a person is diligent then they will be rewarded does not always apply. No matter the persistence that someone possesses, there are instances where hard work does not pay off. Unless actions are taken to combat poverty, the situation will only become worse. The American Dream is not always possible to obtain, and that is becoming more prevalent today than…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The author’s main point in writing this book is too educate people about what poverty is and how it is affecting our society today. She also writes different effective ways that we can change and help people in poverty. Beegle says her goal is to simply make a difference for those living in poverty and to give them real opportunities to do something great with their life. I think Beegle wanted to explain real world problems and tell her own personal story to explain what poverty really means to her. When reading this book and seeing all the statistics about how many families live in poverty I felt more and more blessed and I think that is what she wanted to get across to her audience.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty in America has taken control of 46.7 million people’s lives. From senior citizens, to working adults, to teenagers, and even children, poverty ruins people’s lives. Of course, some could say that there is poverty because we are such a successful nation; however, I believe that America can become a much finer nation without it. What do we mean when we talk about poverty?…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edelman makes an excellent point when he says that change has to start from the bottom up. Poverty has plagued the United States for multiple centuries. To this date there are nearly 46 million people, 15% of the population, in the U.S who are considered poor. The government began to track poverty rates in 1973, in which the U.S had 11.1% of its…

    • 1347 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A podcast by Maxwell Gladwell, My Little Hundred Million, tells the story of Hank Rowan. Hank Rowan donated 100 million dollars to New Jersey’s Glassboro University in 1992. Rowan’s donation was one of the largest of its kind at the time, he donated to a small college with a middling academic reputation. Gladwell discusses the inequities in financing higher education. In the article, Rethinking American Poverty, by Mark R. Rank, he challenges readers to redefine what causes poverty.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Poverty in America is a real issue, and the way we portray it is all wrong. The essay "Changing the Face of Poverty" written by Diana George talks about the problems of how nonprofits misrepresent the face of poverty in America. Most organizations put out flyers and adds that make the needy look like there from the depression era with rags and dirt smudges covering their faces. This is not a true representation of what poverty looks like in America. Most people think that the poor are easy to point out because of what they have seen in advertisements.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Seeing and reading how bad poverty can get in American made me rethink the way I spend my money. How I take the simplest things for granted and how quickly things can go from good to bad. Learning this made me feel like I need to have a plan to keep myself on track with my plans and to prioritize life in ways that will make my plans real. First thing on my list is to get out of the debt that accumulates over time due to interest rates. This debt is not as bad as others, but it is something on my back I would like to remove.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964 during his union address, there has been an increase shift in our attention in trying to lower the poverty rate in America. Today, the poverty line depends on how many people live in a household but these thresholds are too low and need to be higher. The poverty line should be a clear distinction that shows that if one is to be below it they cannot afford to pay for the all necessities in order to live. Living above the poverty line, even if it is just above, should mean that one can pay for bills that are necessary to live even if they are just making by doing this. While the poverty line has increased due to inflation in wages, what it has not accounted for is the increase cost in living.…

    • 1802 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This country is now ranked first in poverty worldwide because of this (Esping-Anderson n.p.). The majority of the time, it is not even someone’s fault if they live in poverty. About one half of America’s children generation inherited their inequality (n.p.). These children are born into a poor family and they cannot do anything about it. They grow up and live their lives worrying about how they will eat, how they will wash their clothes, and even how they will get into school.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Society today has shown us that more and more families are slowly going into poverty and losing their homes because of financial problems. Jeff Madrick The Cost of Child Poverty and Alana Semuels The Resurrection of America’s Slums both agree on the fact that the human population is incapable of supporting ourselves. Both articles main points are similar to the two discussing poverty within our world and how it affects humanity and the American society.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty In Iceland Essay

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Oxford Dictionary defines poverty as the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount; extremely poor. John Iceland explains the views of poverty in America since its discovery until now, and also how it is at its all-time worst. First of all, what is poverty? When asked, someone might say “its just poor people who don 't have anything,” which is true in a sense, but what are the real reasons that poverty exists in this country and why is it at its all time worst. According to the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan the current poverty rate in the United States is 15.1 percent.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, why are so many people in poverty? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the “official poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, which means there were 46.7 million people in poverty” (U.S. Census Bureau). Poverty is an important and emotional issue. To understand poverty in the United States, it is essential to look behind these numbers to see the actual living conditions of the individuals the government deems to be poor. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of guidelines to determine if families meet that poverty threshold.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On War On Poverty

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Poverty has become a crucial problem worldwide and has a great influence on economic development. Regardless if poverty is on a large or small scale, some strand of poverty is visible within many communities worldwide. More than likely, somewhere in the world, there is a young man who is homeless on the street, a single woman who cannot adequately supply for her family, an elderly woman who is sick and is not able to afford her medication, a young lady that has to settle for contaminated water to compensate for nourishment of her body, and people who are on the verge of total financial collapse. America, one of the wealthiest nations on earth with having a high inequality than other industrialized countries has struggled with inequality within income, power and education which resulted in the high intensity issue of poverty.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays