Joseph heyna

Mrs. Jankowski
English 12H
11/22/15
Poverty In The United States
In America today, many citizens become homeless or end up in some form of poverty.
The question is, what are we, in America, going to do to prevent poverty from becoming more of
an issue? Poverty has been an issue throughout American history, and more households are
falling into poverty every single day. Americas poverty rates can be shown through the statistics
and causes, but there are many different observable solutions to this issue.
Poverty in the United States is on the ride each year. To begin with, in rural areas, 22%
percent of American children lived in poverty, with more people in poverty in rural areas than
urban ( Mattingly 1). Even though the statistic is still less than half of Americans, the percentage
keeps rising and is a lot of individuals in poverty. In fact, research shows that in rural areas with
endless children in poverty, an average of 8.1 workers were out of jobs in 2000 ( Mattingly 5).
That is horrendous, because that is 8.1 percent of individuals that are not making the money
necessary to support a family in the United States.
In the same way, there are numerous of examples of childhood poverty in the U.S.
According to a report, a total of 18.7 million children lived in homes that made little money in
2013; these families used more than 30 percent of their income for their living environment
(Calfas p4). This percentage may be small compared to the amount of individuals in the world,
but no U.S. citizen should have to live like this with resources of a first world country. Research
show that in the U.S., almost 15 percent of citizens ( and almost 20 percent of children) live in

poverty. Of those, slightly under 2 percent live on less than $2 per person per day( Isaacson 1).
Absolutely no one in the world should only live off two dollars a day per person in their family.
In the economy today, living off that much money would not get an individual very far.
Likewise, in 2011, 1.5 million families, with 2.8 million children in total,lived in extreme
poverty( Lynk 2). There are 2.8 million more children in poverty than there needs to be. In 2011,
the long-term child poverty in the U.S. reached immense level, with 16.7 million children living
in food-insecure homes ( Lynk 2). Thats a great deal of children that do not know what it is like
to have a full stomach, let alone have food to eat everyday.
Another way to view poverty, is through nationwide statistics of poverty. For instance, A
family of four that makes only $23.624 is considered below the poverty line (Calfas 1). That is a
small amount of cash for a family of four. In the article, Poverty Facts, the author states that in
2014, 47 million people in total lived in poverty in the U.S. (1). This meant that the poverty level
was 15% (Poverty USA p1). 15% may be a small amount compared to the percentage of
Americans in the U.S., but it is a good amount of people who are living a harsh life. For these
percentages, the rate for blacks in 2014 was 26%, hispanics 24% and whites 10 (Poverty USA 1).
America is working on a solution to fight poverty, but before a cure for poverty is established,
individuals must first truly understand the causes.
There are many causes of poverty. One of the many causes of poverty is recession.
According to the Census Bureau, The deep recession that began around December 2007
increased the U.S. poverty rate from 13.2 percent to 14.3 percent, its highest level since 1994
(Clemmitt 1). If the poverty rates keep increasing, then soon more and more individuals will live
in poverty. Some of the individuals that will be living in poverty include children. Research
shows that, about 22% of children in the U.S. lived below the poverty line in 2013, compared

with 18% in 2008, as reported by 2015 Kids Count Databook Reported (Calfas p2). Since there
was an increasing percentage of children in poverty, more solutions are necessary to solve the
problem. It was proven that poverty among children is more likely than adults ever since the
recession (Billitteri 1).
Another cause of poverty is an increase of unemployment. Jobs are necessary to make the
money needed to support a family. Without a job, it is hard enough for an individual to support
oneself, let alone an entire family. Due to the recession, unemployment rates skyrocketed,
increasing the poverty rates dramatically in 2007 (Billitteri 1). The recession caused a galore of
individuals to go unemployed, causing them to go into poverty. According to analyst Elizabeth
Kneebone, 100 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, city, and suburban unemployment
both nearly doubled between December 2007 and December 2009, rising to 10.3 percent in the
100 largest cities and to 9.3 percent in the suburbs ( Billitteri 1). This goes to show that
unemployment is a major cause of poverty.
An individual's responsibility has an impact on whether or not he/she is in poverty.
Author Charles Murray reviewed 30 years of federal antipoverty programs that failed and
concluded that it is not an individual's social factors that cause poverty, but a lack of
responsibility ( Smith 2). His idea makes sense. If an individual does not have the willpower to
complete the objective and get themselves out of poverty, then they probably won't get out of
poverty. Just like Murray's viewpoint that an individual's lack of responsibility is the core cause
of poverty, investing money to organizations would make enormous strides in decreasing poverty
( Smith 2). Knowing these causes will allow us individuals to know how to come up with
solutions to prevent poverty in the future.

Knowing the causes of poverty allows individuals to come up with solutions. One way to
decrease poverty is to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-originally
called food stamps. Snap enrolled 43.5 million Americans in November 2010 (Billitteri 1). They
greatly reduces the amount of poverty by allowing individuals to receive a certain amount of
food for free each month. The recovery act kept more than 4.5 million people out of poverty
according to CBPP (Billitteri 1).The expansions of unemployment benefits helped keep 1.3
million people above the poverty line ( Billitteri 2). Those numbers may be small, but every little
amount of help given is essential. A simple cash subsidy say, $15,000 per year for every
household- would give the poor and middle class a financial floor on which they could live,and
take care of their loved ones ( Isaacson 1). $15,000 per year would be a nice foundation to sit
upon. If the individuals spend the money in the right way, then it would last a good while.
Another way to decrease poverty is by allowing children to have early education. As Ron
Smith wrote in his article Escaping Poverty, As a society, however, we have been reluctant to
invest in early education even knowing that there is clear evidence it plays a major role in
helping individuals escape poverty as adults (Smith 2). Allowing children to start school early
is a wonderful idea. A good program that provides a child with a great start in school is Head
Start ( Smith 2). Another program that educated the public is Child Protection Services (CPS).
CPS protects children from poverty, abuse, and any sort of harm a child could go through. This
program is a really great way to make sure that children are treated right, and live a long healthy
life.
Making sure more people are employed will drastically decrease the poverty levels. One
way to do this is by creating jobs. In order to get back to prerecession employment levels, we
must come up with 5.6 million new jobs. which at the speed we are going, it would take us to

July 2018 (Vallas p5). This may seem like a long time, but if we as individuals start now, it will
all be worth it at the end. The longer we wait, the longer until more individuals are above the
poverty line. Once the new jobs are created, the government should raise the minimum wage.
The minimum wage would only have to be raised to $10.10 per hour to lift more than 4 million
Americans out of poverty ( Vallas p6). Even though some individuals argue that minimum wage
is not supposed to support a family, it would be better for everyone if the minimum wage was
raised. An amazing idea is to increase EITC for children workers. It is proven that EITC has
helped more than 6.5 million Americans-including 3.3 million children avoid poverty ( Vallas 1).
Those statistics may not be the largest but they are a lot better than zero children being helped.
Children with EITC are more likely to graduate and have higher paying jobs as adults (Vallas 1).
So it is better to increase EITC, so children will get these benefits and live better lives.
All things considered, with the statistics, causes, and solutions, America has the ability to
recover from poverty. It just takes time and dedication that most Americans are not putting into
it. I have taken up responsibility of collecting clothes for my church's clothing bank. Doing this
allows individuals in poverty in our community to have clothes they need in which they can not
afford. My question to you as a reader is, what are you going to do to prevent poverty? America
can apply the solutions above, and become a better economy today.

Sources

Billitteri,Thomas J. Domestic Poverty.CQ Researcher (2007). Mass Ultra. 9 Nov. 2015.

Calfas, Jennifer. More-poor-children-living -in-poverty-now-than-during-recession. USA
Today. 21 July 2015.Web.9 Nov.2015.
Isaacson, Betsy. End poverty by replacing the entire welfare system with universal basic

income. Silver Bullets (2014). Mass Ultra.9/Nov. 2015.

Lynk,Myles.introduction. Human Rights 40.3 (2014): 1-25. Academic Search Premier. Web.
18 Nov. 2015.
Mattingly,Marybeth J.More Poor Kids In More Poor Places: Children Increasingly Live Where
Poverty persist. Issue Brief Number 38.Carsey Institute (2011): ERIC. Web. 9 Nov.
2015.
Poverty Facts. Poverty USA. 2014, U.S. Census Bureau.Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Smith, Ron. Preventing Poverty. Washington Viewpoint (2013). Mass Ultra. 9 Nov. 2015
Vallas, Rebecca and Boteach, Melissa. The top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the
Middle Class. Center of American Progress. 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.