The Role Of Poverty In The United States

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The bottom half Founded in 1776, America rose from the ground to flourish into one of the world’s leading superpower nation with a powerful military, global market economy, democratic government and a diverse population- but yet like many other advanced nations, the country still faces unresolved issues of their own. A recent census reported that approximately 14.8% of people in America lives in the level of poverty, that is around 50 million people struggling to survive each day (Milligan). But why, in a place of such great power & wealth does this still occur? Why is it that poverty is still prevalent today in the United States? Universally, the umbrella term of poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, …show more content…
Currently, most decent waged jobs in the US require some form of high school education or a degree yet even then, the corruption within the education system prevents these opportunities. Most of the time, fundings from Title I are spent less on poor children and are used elsewhere (“Poor schools or Poor Kids”). This in turn would contribute to lack of resources for learning materials needed for students to succeed, which then can possibly lead to poor test scores. And for some, this may be the crucial link into breaking the cycle of poverty (“The Effects of Poverty on Education in the United States”).
Another aspect that correlates with poverty is the environment. Though housing costs vary state to state, they are usually typically at a high price with a median of 100K and finding an affordable housing for lower income families can be greatly difficult. Generally, if they cannot find one , they are confined to live in rural areas with poor housing conditions that can eventually put their health at risk. And not only that but also, children who grew up in an environment that lacks adequate resources are shown to also suffer in their performance
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The fierce competition in Capitalism has prompted business to explore areas that generates as much profits as possible, which includes cheap resources and labor. Employers will hire foreign labor to work for less pay and replace highly expensive, skilled workers that are likely to quit. This then leads to unemployment and can also force individuals to settle for lower waged jobs that provide some form of income but not substantial enough to manage. These insufficient wages can further drive a family to deeper levels of poverty by exploiting them to buy poorly made essential goods at a cost they cannot afford (Wolff).
As a result, the government created programs that are meant to deal and eradicate poverty. The Welfare System created by the government is meant to serve and assist to give benefits for people in need of it. Yet even with these benefits are the levels of poverty still unchanging and perhaps, even growing much faster than it is decades ago. To evaluate its performance, two programs are evaluated in order to provide an insight as to what difference they bring when facing the challenge of eradicating

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