Poverty In The United States

Poverty in the United States has been a persistent issue for many decades. Conley (2011) defined poverty as being “a condition of deprivation due to economic circumstances.” The root of poverty is the cause of two major factors; a person’s average income, and the lack of opportunities to prosper. Although, the U.S government has tried to adopt legislation to end the nation’s poverty, no objective has been successful. By virtue of the high rates of poverty, there are many people that believe that poverty is linked to capitalism. Since the United States operates under the system of capitalism, the cycle of poverty has been a result of class stratification and inequality. The uneven distribution of wealth and income in the U.S has caused social …show more content…
Since wealthy business men own many private corporate media outlets, as well as private educational institutions, they have control over societal beliefs (Parenti, 630). “Mainstream ideas are the ideas of the ruling class” (Parenti, 630). For instance, corporate media outlets manipulate society’s thoughts by presenting bias information. “The media provides us with prejudice stories about welfare, cheats, drug addicts and greedy panhelders” (Mantsios, 512). Therefore, corporate media owners are responsible for negative attitudes towards people living in poverty. The media influences people’s perceptions on poverty by labeling those who live impoverished as either being “lazy” or being “criminals”. The media makes us believe that poverty is a “norm” of the American way of life (Mantsios, 513). Capitalism also plays a role in the educational system. “Children are taught at a young age to compete with each other rather than to work cooperatively for common goals and mutual benefit” (Parenti, 631). As a result, inequality stems from the feeling of being superior. The desire of human ego is to want to acquire more success than others and for that reason, we have a division of class within our society. Moreover, anti-poor ideologies of culture and politics also shape our view of poor people. Poverty in the United States is systematic; a result of economic and political policies” (Mantsios, 513). The …show more content…
Since, postindustrial economies resulted in a high demand of immigrant labor, people were forced to migrate to other countries (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 435). “Mexican and Central American women left their families and children behind to seek employment in the U.S” (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 437). As seen in Harvest of Empire, many people migrate to other countries in hopes of prosperity due to the subsistence level in their country of origin. Immigrants who migrate to the U.S come in search of “The American Dream,” occupying a large amount of blue collar jobs (Getzels, Lopez, 2012). The U.S, especially California, highly depend on immigrant labor. Undocumented workers have become a great asset to the U.S economy (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 437). Wealthy corporations benefit from immigrant labor since they are able to exploit workers and pay immigrants low wages. Consequently, immigrants are forced to live pay check to pay check. Immigrants have no choice but to comply with the system of capitalism because they fear losing their job. (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2012) stated, that private paid domestic jobs are not only directed specifically to women of poor socioeconomic classes but also to women who come from nations that colonialism has made much poorer. Therefore, it is evident that capitalism is a key factor in inequality. Moreover, since immigrants lack proper education and