Poverty in America may seem to affect only a small percentage of people, but is more

prevalent than most would think. Poverty makes an impact on every person that it contacts,

whether direct or indirect. 100.9 million people [fall] below twice the poverty line (Talk).

These people are not even recognized as living in poverty, yet still struggle to make ends meet.

Not only this, but millions of poverty-stricken people worldwide all struggle with the same

day to day challenges and have to deal with the effects that poverty has had on their lives

and the lives of those around them.

To gain a better understanding of the topic, it is essential to know poverty basics. There

are different types of poverty. While relative poverty is defined as significantly less than the

average income for society, absolute poverty is when people have insufficient income to afford

the basic necessities of life, such as food, rent, and clothing (Tejvan) There are both types of

poverty found in America today. However, one-third of deaths worldwide-some 18 million

people a year- are due to poverty related causes, which have been virtually eliminated in the

U.S. (Richards) So while the typical poor American is better off than a poor person in another

country, they are still significantly affected by their lack of wealth and the american system for

the poor. With that said, 43.1 million people lived in Poverty USA (U.S). The total population

of America is currently at 318.86 million, meaning that a little over 13 percent of the population

lives in poverty. Even more than this, six percent of the population- or 19.5 million people- live

in deep poverty, with incomes at only 50 percent of their poverty thresholds (U.S.) , which are

set at $12,000 for an individual or $24,000 for a family of four (U.S.) Beyond this, about

80,000 families in New York are at risk of homelessness each year(Board), and this is only one

major american city. Homelessness is a special kind of poverty in which people not only are

lacking basic resources like food and water, but even a simple place to take shelter.
Homelessness, relative poverty, and absolute poverty are all very significant problems that are

only continuing to grow.

A major portion of those who are impoverished include the homeless population.

There is a stigma surrounding these people. It says that they are too lazy or just spend their

money on alcohol, and there are a select few that fall into those categories. However the

National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the 2013 Housing Wage was $18.79,

exceeding the $14.32 hourly wage earned by the average renter by $4.50 and hour, and greatly

exceeding wages earned by low income renter households (Homelessness), meaning that some

homeless individuals could be working hard, and still not be able to make enough to afford even

low-income housing. There is some help, but it has been very minimal. The program called

Home Stability Support would help bridge the gap between the shelter allowance for public

assistance and market rents. (Board) This program would allow for families to receive support

towards making rent, and would replace other current programs. This program is an important

step in the direction toward helping people who have nothing. It is increasingly evident that the

general population is uninformed about this matter though, and that is seen in protests against

homelessness. Protesters seem to think that poor people can be harangued into making the rent

(Board), which is simply a sad scenario of the general public not knowing about the world

around them. The reality is that sometimes people are forced or compelled into circumstances

that they have no control over. Whether that is homelessness or just a hard time financially, these

people cannot help what their environment has given them.

Poverty has been in America and throughout the world for centuries, but it took a

long process to get to the current condition. The welfare state as we know it began in the 1930s

under President Franklin D. Roosevelt the welfare system has ballooned to over 77 federal
programs (Richards). After the Great Depression, welfare programs began to rise to help people

that had lost everything that they ever had. These programs were intended to have effects only on

the people of that time period, to help them get back on their feet. However, even today we see

the effects of them among people that are still living in poverty. This is partly because of the

continuation of Presidents in the mid-1900s that pushed for help for the disadvantaged, such as

President Lyndon Johnsons War on Poverty, welfare programs were a part of his Great Society

agenda (Richards). This led to the evolving welfare state that most economists would recognize

today. Throughout most of American History, religious and other private organizations provided

most of the help for the disadvantaged. (Richards) Although there has always been poverty, the

difference in the poverty of the past and today is in who has taken on the role of helping those in

need. When the government took on the challenge of providing for these citizens, there was

actually a fundamental change that increased poverty levels; people or states were incentivized

for their poverty. Welfare dependence has spread dramatically. While the caseload of Aid to

Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was just under a million in 1964, by 1995 it

had risen to 4.8 million (Richards), and these numbers show approximately an 8 percent

increase in government dependants per year over 31 years. In 1996, when Aid to Families with

Dependent Children was revised, states were given more federal funds if their welfare caseloads

increased, and funds were cut whenever the state caseload fell ( Richards). This continued until

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families was passed. [TANF] provided incentives to move

recipients toward self-sufficiency (Richards). This reform led to decreasing numbers of people

in poverty, and seemed to be an improvement in the state of American poverty. However, a

policy change tucked into the massive 2009 stimulus bill virtually abolished [TANF] : For the

first time since 1996 states were rewarded for increasing their caseloads. Since 2009, the
welfare state in America has continued in this trend of government dependence, leading to

present times, where America is swelling in poverty numbers.

With so much history on poverty, some might think that there would be a program with a

solution to be found by this point. However, there are still many factors- social, economic, and

governmental- that cause people and families to live in poverty. A lost job, sickness,

addiction, domestic violence- can propel a family into the shelter or the street (Board) or simply

into a downward spiral without a good way out. These are all deciding, yet uncontrollable factors

that could determine a familys fate. Social factors play such a huge role in poverty, because of

their unregulated nature. However, there is a factor that people can control. Unwed childbearing

is concentrated among low-income, less educated women in their early 20s - those who have the

least ability to support a family by themselves (Richards) Having a child out of marriage is one

of the top contributors to poverty, simply because the girl typically has no job, or a low-income

at best. It is also made more difficult because instead of going to work, the mother must find

some way to take care of her child. Whether this is through paid child-care, which is increasingly

more expensive, or caring for the child herself, which she cannot do while working a job,

finances are tight, or even non-existent. More work would fix this problem, if the mother could

balance work and childcare. The typical poor family with children is supported by only 800

hours of work during a year, an average of 16 hours per week. If work in each family were raised

to the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week, nearly 75 percent of poor children

would be lifted out of poverty (Richards) The type and amount of work that the head of the

household can manage to obtain throughout the year can make a substantial difference in a poor

familys life. While it seems that the government should not contribute to poverty, but improve

conditions, some of the government action taken tends to increase the number of people in
poverty. Means-tested programs pose disincentives for households to increase their income

and risk termination of their benefits (Richards). A family that does not make as much in a year

and receives benefits and help from the government, is not motivated to make more and be

barely scraping by, when they could continue to rely on governmental help. To be rewarded for

not working is inherently a recipe to not promote work.

People who live in poverty are affected beyond their financial need. Individuals face

lifelong effects; Even living in poverty for a short time can be detrimental, especially to

children. Some of the effects include education, physical health, and mental health. For every

year a child spends in poverty, there is a chance that the child will fall behind grade level by age

18 (Nagel) Because living in poverty places an extra stress on school children, they tend to have

less of a focus on their education. When a child does not know when they will next bathe or eat,

doing homework is not their top priority.[Children in single-parent homes] are more likely to

fail in school, abuse drugs or alcohol, become pregnant as teenagers, suffer from emotional and

behavioral problems, and end up in jail as adults. (Richards) These are all effects that have been

proven to come in a cycle. A child that suffers from poverty, is highly more likely to live in

poverty as an adult because they have been predisposed to these trends of unwed childbearing,

lack of education, and emotional problems, all of which are major causes of poverty. Physical

health effects, however, are just as prominent. Poor children are two times more likely than non-

poor children to have stunted growth, iron deficiency, and severe asthma. (Nagel) Some of these

health problems, such as asthma, arise from the poor living conditions that many poor children

live in. Dust and particulate matter in the environment of an older or poorly constructed house

contribute to the acquirement of asthma, in children especially. Iron deficiency is typically

related to poverty because of dietary issues. Healthy foods are typically more expensive than
foods that contain empty carbs and have little nutritional value. Therefore, when people are

struggling to pay rent, their hungry stomachs tell them to just buy what is affordable. Iron

deficiency causes major health effects such as consistent fatigue and anemia. Mental health is

also affected in children, and this is seen in the lack of family or parental figures, and in the

skewed leadership children may follow. When a child has parents who are struggling to provide

attention and constant love, they may turn to anyone or anything that gives them control or

power. Drugs and alcohol may provide this, or a peer who has negative influence. Children are

impressionable and while there are exceptional children that do their best to break the cycle of

what they grew up in, that is exactly what they are; Exceptions.

Effects on the individual typically arise out of family situations that have also been

affected by poverty. Poverty adds extensive stress to the family. McLyod (1990) says that

economic hardship experienced by lower-class families is associated with anxiety, depression,

and irritability ( Nagel) All of these effects do damage to the family aspect of a persons life. A

family contributes to ideals, morals, speech, health, political orientation; literally every single

aspect of someones personality. So it is no surprise that the family that one is raised in also

affects their financial future. Decades of research have brought forth incontestable evidence that

the decline of the family and marital dissolution are strongly linked to the financial status and

long-term prospects of women and their children.(Richards). When a family is stressed about

finances and food, raising a child to reach their full potential is not what is crossing their minds.

If the mood of a family is constantly revolving around pressure to get by, the focus is not on the

love and care that a family is supposed to provide. Poverty may promote the use of disciplinary

approaches that take less time and effort than approaches such as reasoning and negotiating.

(Nagel) While quicker approaches may produce immediate effects that seem to be positive, over
a period of time, a child learns that mistakes are not acceptable, and must be hidden from

parents. If the parent will take time to reason with a child about right and wrong, and the long-

term effects of misguided actions, the child will learn to be open to criticism and be compelled

toward actions that do not have negative long-term effects.

Not only does poverty affect those who are face-to-face with it on a daily basis, but it

also has effects on everyone involved in the system. The middle and upper classes are affected

by the emotional and financial burden of those who live in poverty. By historical standards,

more americans are quite wealthy. Thats part of what bothers us. If we were all poor, we might

just think that's just the way things are, but when millions of us are doing quite well while others

languish in poverty, it seems that something is just not right. (Richards) What is said here is

very significant because it addresses the elephant in the room when it comes to poverty. The

reality is that some people are genuinely, very well off. These people must deal with the

emotional burden of which mentality to choose; One says that their hard-earned money is their

own, while the contradicting side says to help those who cannot help themselves. More

importantly than this though, is the financial burden that the middle class bears. Even in a

capitalist society, the wealthy are taxed and some of that goes to benefits for the poor. The

American government here may either choose to implement means tested benefits or universal

benefits, which will be discussed in further detail on page 8. Either form demands a burden on

the taxpayer (Tejvan), which is controversial in the eyes of those paying for someone elses

benefits. However, some pricey legislation could positively affect the social atmosphere and

would be better for protecting stable neighborhoods and communities (Board). The middle

class could have the reassurance of better surrounding communities for themselves and increased
safety for their families, but at the cost of losing some finances to taxes that benefit the poor as

well.

Since so many fellow Americans are living such poor conditions, something must be

done to help. Immediate financial assistance can be provided through government initiatives,

either means tested or universal benefits typically. Both of these types of programs have positive

and negative effects on everyone involved. Means tested benefits [are] cheaper than universal

benefits and reduce the burden on the taxpayer (Tejvan), but are also beneficial only to those

who qualify to receive them. Universal benefits however, cost more overall but benefit anyone

who may take advantage of them. So means-tested benefits are cheaper, but never benefit those

who are paying for them, while universal benefits are more expensive but the taxpayer may

profit from them. Some means tested programs such as TANF, provide incentives to move

recipients towards self-sufficiency (Richards), while others tend to promote government

reliance for extended periods of time. This contributes to the controversy of government

assistance to the poor. Some propose a different type of solution.We can not fight poverty by

alleviating its symptoms, but only by attacking the factors of poverty (Bartle). This approach to

poverty is different than the idea of most government action. A large percentage of assistance

programs focus on fixing the immediate effects of poverty, which leaves a family in a poor

situation, and does not actually fight the source of the issue. The community empowerment

methodology is an alternative to giving charity, which provides assistance, capital and training

aimed at low income communities identifying their own resources and taking control of their

own development-becoming empowered. (Bartle) There are currently programs like this that

exist, such as Goodwills training program. By giving people skills and confidence, they are able
to make a better life for themselves, rather than rely on someone else for the rest of their lives.

(Possibly talk about education??)

Poverty takes a major toll on the American economy in many ways. Taking into

account the amount of money that state and federal governments spend on assistance programs

and the amount of money that those people are not making, poverty for some means a poor

economy for all. The unemployed have little income, relying on state benefits (Tejvan)

Reducing unemployment would not only provide income to those who have little to none, it

would also benefit the states. To have fewer unemployed that need support means that more

money could be spent on improving education or shrinking the gap between wealth and poverty.

Poverty also affects the future economy. Every year of child poverty at current levels will cost

the nation at least $36 billion in lost future productivity alone, because poor children will be less

educated and less effective workers (Nagel) Because of the trend of poor children growing up to

live in poverty again, the economy cannot grow. Future productivity and current employment

levels work hand in hand to create a poor economy for America.

Poverty is widespread and detrimental to many American citizens. The effects that it has

on the people it touches can be lifelong and painful, but there is something to be done about

this. People need food, shelter, and clothing but they also need relationships that offer love and

accountability that address the transcendent aspects of human existence (Richards) Simply

being available to help is the biggest impact a person can make. Being willing to go, do, or serve

for the good of someone else can be enlightening and rewarding. Yes there is a problem in

America, but yes, it can be made better.