Essay On Poverty In The United States

Poverty in the United States of America is a controversial topic, the issue of poverty affects everyone nationwide. The United States, societal roles are often depicted and dependent on poverty to keep the scale balanced between the wealthy and the poor. Poverty consists of two words, the word poor, meaning lacking, insufficient and below the norm. The second word society, meaning a large social group sharing the same social or geographic territory. In the year 1990 13.1 percent of America’s population lived in poverty. Ten years later 11.3 percent of America’s population lived in poverty. Currently the US poverty number is 14.5 percent. A whole 1.4 percent increase does not seem grand; yet any percentile raise should be a concern. The 14.5 …show more content…
A union is an organization that represents shared interests of workers in negotiations with employers over wages, hours and working conditions. The most common type of unions are labor unions. Labor unions are often industry-specific, associated with jobs involving manufacturing, mining, transportation and construction. The decline of unions can be defined by the decrease or reduction of unions in the United States. As unions decrease inequality increases. Groups living below the poverty threshold and in the gray area between poverty and middle class are often labor workers. Decline of unions inherently affects decline in wages. Labor jobs often have unions working to increase wages without these unions, providing income stabilization and protection, wages will decline affecting labor workers directly. Many sources, including the Economic Policy Institute state when unions are strong the economy as a whole does better. Unions keep stability in the economy by raising earnings for their adherents, establishing more job openings and promoting employee benefits. With the deterioration of unions, there has been record highs in corporate profits and record lows in workers’