Spencer Eaton

English 1010-042
Jamie McBeth-Smith
11/10/14
Liberty and Justice for Some, Poverty for Most Annotated Bibliography
As children we were all taught the pledge of allegiance. One verse, in particular, stands
out: Liberty and justice for all. However, as we get older, most of us begin to realize things are
not so cut and dry as our elementary school teachers had led us to believe. What exactly is it that
is keeping us from reaching that high standard of liberty and justice for all? Is it in our political
system? After all, we are a republic. It would seem that the people of America have a very loud
voice in comparison to other political systems. Is it the media brainwashing us? If so, then why
are there so many opposing views portrayed in the media. Surely if the media were an allencompassing brainwashing machine designed to make sure we never reach that standard there
would only be one viewpoint fed to us on national television. Maybe it is religion? After all
religions have always been the most powerful organizations in the world. The problem with that
hypothesis is that in America, religions are theoretically given equal treatment and we do not
have one national religion. So then what is it that is keeping us from reaching that noble
standard? I would push the idea that it is money that is the culprit.
Aside from inequality, money seems to be the one thing that every society to ever have
existed has in common. It is money that allows some voices to be louder than others in politics. It
is money that allows some viewpoints to be covered more than others in the media. And it is

money that makes some religions more significant than others. Until we can invent a system that
does not need money in order to exist, there will never be liberty and justice for all.
But dont take it from me. Here is what some other people are saying on the subject.
Paul Krugman, Confronting Inequality, from the 2007 book The Conscience of a Liberal
https://sdsuwriting.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/71890988/Krugman_confronting_inequality.pdf
Paul Krugman writes about the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America,
pointing out the negative effects it has on the middle and lower classes. These include such
things as malnutrition, debt, overspending, poor medical care, and lack of education and so on.
Krugman goes on to explain political choices that could help to solve the issues he raises. One
such choice is a national healthcare system like the one that is currently under construction in our
country. Others include less tax cuts for the wealthy and more for the poor, closing some of the
tax loopholes that corporations are currently taking advantage of, and even raising the taxes for
the super-rich. He goes into other political issues as well, from minimum wage to education.
Ill be honest, when I read this chapter of Krugmans book, I was a little intimidated. It
seems as though he has already said just about everything there is to say about poverty in
America and even knows some excellent ways to fix these problems. However, after some
thinking, it occurred to me that there is a lot more to American poverty than politics. It isnt just
a matter of letting the government fix our problems. At some point, we have to take personal
responsibility for the way that our country has turned out. After all, this is supposed to be a
government for the people and by the people. Besides that, is it really so hard for us to just be
generous when we are able to? You know, instead of buying gold chains and gold rims for our

cars, why not build a homeless shelter, or a home for abused children? There is a lot that can be
done about poverty that doesnt have to include politics.
Karen Olsson, Up Against Wal-Mart
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2003/03/against-wal-mart
Karen Olsson tells the story of Jennifer Mclaughlin, a Wal-Mart employee who has spent three
years working there full time for extremely low wages. She talks about the enormous amount of
work Wal-Mart employees have to do for these low wages and how difficult it is to work ones
way up in businesses such as these. One of Olssons main points is that companies such as WalMart are the main employers in the United States and yet people working there cannot make ends
meet. Her point being that that is a very large amount of people who work hard and yet cant pay
the bills.
This article stuck out to me because, unlike Krugman, Olsson didnt focus so much on
the political side of poverty and instead focused on the lives of those impoverished. By actually
telling the story of a lower income American, Olsson shows us the challenges of poverty in a
way that just cant be understood by taking a political approach. She shows us not just what is
going on, but why it is such a problem.
Mark R. Rank, Poverty in America Is Mainstream, New York Times, November 2, 2013
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/poverty-in-america-is-mainstream/?_r=0
In this article, Rank talks about the myths surrounding poverty. As one can infer based on
the title of Ranks article, his main point is that American poverty is not an isolated problem, but
rather one that most Americans will, or have faced at some point in their lives. On a more

positive note, Rank tackles the myth that poverty is something Americans face for years, or even
their entire lifetime. While this is true for a select few, Rank points out that most people only
experience poverty for short periods of time before being able to work their ways out of it. In
spite of this seemingly positive attribute of American poverty, Rank explains that we actually
have a higher poverty rate than most other developed countries because of our lack of
governmental support for the poor. In his conclusion, he makes the observation that poverty is
something that can happen to anyone, so it is a problem that is everyones responsibility to fix.
My favorite part of this article is how he really drives the issue home to your average
American. Like he says, it shouldnt be a problem for those going through poverty to fix on their
own and it shouldnt be a problem solely for the government either. Its a reality we all face and
it is something we have to work together to fix.
Ali Meyer, 1 in 5 Children Live In Poverty in U.S., CNSNews.com, June 3, 2014
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/1-5-children-live-poverty-us
This is simply a report on the U.S. Census bureaus statistics on poverty. Meyer points
out that since the war on poverty began in the 1960s; the amount of poverty has only dropped a
little more than 6%. Another alarming statistic is that nearly half of Americas single mothers are
living in poverty while only a little more than 11% of 2 parent households are in poverty.
I wasnt really surprised by the statistics talked about in this article. If anything, I
expected the numbers to be higher. Ultimately it wasnt a very interesting article, but I thought it
was important to include some statistics in my essay.

Monica Potts, The U.S. is Losing a Generation to Poverty, The Daily Beast, September
18, 2014
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/18/the-us-is-losing-a-generation-to-poverty.html
Potts writes about how although statistics indicate that poverty levels are declining, our
way of determining poverty is actually outdated. Just because people may have roofs over their
heads and enough food to get by, there are still an alarming number of poor people in America.
She points out that while more jobs may have been made in the past decade; those jobs are not
paying enough for people to live off of. Potts is concerned that if we do not create better jobs, the
younger generations will suffer. She explains that the cost of living is increasing just as fast as
the number of jobs being created, so just having a job isnt enough. People need jobs that pay
well, too. She also notes that government assistance, such as food stamps, seems to make a big
difference in getting families out of poverty. Finally, Potts talks about how being raised in
poverty can effect a childs opportunities later in life. For example, getting a bad education
means it will be harder to get a good job when they are adults.
The most interesting thing about this article in my opinion was actually the statistics Potts
gave comparing child poverty in America to other developed countries. In total, 42.6 percent of
children still live in families who are poor or near-poor, which means they are struggling
economically. The rate of child poverty in the United States is higher than it is in other
countriesfor example, the UK rate 12.1 percent, and in France its 8.8 percent. Also, children
are the poorest demographic group in the United States. This was surprising to me because I
knew America had more poverty than many other countries, but I wasnt aware how big the
difference was.

Dan Hancox, Spains Communist Model Village, The Guardian, October 19, 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/marinaleda-spanish-communist-village-utopia
This article describes a successful communist village in Spain where people live in peace
and share each others wealth.
I found it interesting that a communist society could be so successful, yet have such little
media coverage.
Thomas Whiston, Medieval Iceland and the Absence of Government, Mises Daily,
December 25, 2002
http://mises.org/library/medieval-iceland-and-absence-government
An article about anarchy in medieval Iceland. It talks about the unique society, which
included courts and judges that could be taken out of office at any time if they lost favor of the
people. It was a society based mostly on agriculture and trading and did not use currency.
I thought this article was interesting because it shows that humanity doesnt need
government to get by. People can and do take care of themselves and of each other when they
have reason to. But when rules and regulations are placed everywhere, it makes it much harder to
succeed.
I think there is a lot of material here I can use to make my position synthesis more
convincing, particularly statistical information and Paul Krugmans chapter from his book. My
take on poverty is a bit more radical. I dont believe politics are the most efficient way to fix
these issues; so much of my position synthesis will be spent talking about alternative ways to
tackle the issue of poverty. From reading these articles I have learned that poverty is actually an

even bigger issue than I had initially imagined and that it is largely our political systems fault
that poverty is such a wide spread problem. You cannot fight fire with fire, so I believe that
trying to make even more political maneuvers regarding this issue will only create more
problems.