Living In Poverty Analysis

Over 50 million Americans are living in poverty in the US. There was a comment made about the US that stated, America is a rich country full of poor people. While there is an overwhelming amount of poor/homeless Americans in the US, there usually is still this stigma attached to people who are living in poverty. People living in poverty/homelessness are thought to be uneducated, lazy Americans who want to spend their lives living off the government. However, if you were to walk in the shoes of an American living in poverty, you would see that those statements couldn’t be any further from the truth. While poverty does not discriminate on race, gender, age, etc. more people in certain demographics are more likely to be living in poverty. For …show more content…
Homelessness in America is the highest it’s ever been since the Great Depression (The Politics of Homelessness: A Call to Action.) The 2014 Census Bureau recorded that over 46 million people were living in poverty. It also shows that 21.1 percent of children were living in poverty in 2014. There are serious health concerns that may be a result of living in Poverty. One main health concern with people living in poverty or being homeless is the increased chance of going hungry; food insecurity. Starving your body from the macro and micronutrients it needs can lead to a severe form of malnutrition. This goes way beyond an individual person; if a woman is pregnant and not properly nourished during her pregnancy, after birth, the baby’s immune system will be weakened, making them more susceptible to infections, illnesses and diseases. It can also prevents that child’s ability to grow physically and mentally to their fullest capacity. In 2014, more than 48.1 million Americans were living in a household with food insecurity, 15.3 million of those were children (FRAC, 2014.) Children living in poverty are more likely to grow up with complications to their health because of their early exposures to many illnesses that come with living in poverty or being …show more content…
In order to reduce the amount of poor/homeless people living in the US, there needs to be serious actions, laws and policies put into place. A lot of policies that help people with financial assistance needs to be updated from the time it was passed when the minimum wage was different. There also needs to be better budgeting choices; the nation should invest in more in building affordable houses to families and the homeless. Another way to reduce this crises is to have the wealthier paying a higher pay of their income to taxes than those people living in the middle-class to anything lower. There needs to be a promotion and focus on a strong middle-class. When you look at other areas of the world that are prosperous, you see that there is a focus on the businesses trying to promote the health of those living in poverty because those people in turn would be more invested in that company and spend their money there, which will increase more revenue in that business. Another possible solution would be to increase in the minimum wage for a working American. Another issue is the unequal distribution of wealth. When businesses become successful and make more money, the workers are