In society today poverty is measured to ways either absolute poverty, or relative poverty. Lets start with Absolute poverty, Absolute poverty measures the number of people living below a certain income threshold or the number of households unable to afford certain basic goods and services like food water and shelter. This is the level of poverty you most likely picture when you hear the word poverty. Usually commercials of foreign children, with bloated bellies who suffer from malnutrition and lack of clean water. Absolut poverty is mostly prevalent in developing countries like India or Haiti, but the United States is not immune from it.
The working poor have programs such as food stamps, housing, and child care subsidies that extend their services to them and attempt to provide a safety net. However, Earned Income Tax Credit is the only program specifically designed to benefit poor workers (Rocha, 1997). This program is paid through the federal government to low income working families with children, in a form of a tax subsidy design to attempt to bring these families out of poverty. The program has produce substantial increases in employment and reductions in welfare receipt among single parents, and also have had a lot to do with the large decreases in poverty (Greenstein,
The law brought positive changes to the country encouraging more people to seek employment, “working people developed their own self-help movement”. Walsh M, et al, 2000. But also created some negative changes, working conditions were extremely harsh and families were split up. The amendment act was disliked by the poor population of the country because of the leissez-faire system the government had in place, the government’s approach on leissez-faire was to intervene as little as possible with the direction of economic affairs. This had an impact on the poor, it caused stigma and the poor had a mark of disgrace on their reputation.
Children growing up in poverty face many disadvantages such as unhealthy levels of stress making it near impossible to successfully complete college, thus making it harder to escape their surroundings. The poverty rates in some European countries are much lower than in the United States because of programs they have put into place to help the poor and unlucky, leading one to think the government should once again re-declare the war on poverty. Krugman’s article not only shows percentages he also lets his readers know what the findings were from scientific studies. Living in the conditions of poverty is stressful for anyone, much less children. I see the effects that poverty has on many people every day, and always think one day that could be me.
During 1906 to 1914 the Liberals passed reforms to try and improve the lives of the British people. Booth and Rowntree impacted the way people viewed the poor, they conducted a report which identified two areas of poor. Primary poverty was due to low wage, unemployment, sickness and old age. And secondary poverty was the source of laziness and citizens wasting money by spending it on drink and gambling. When the report was released, people began to see the true extent of poverty and that the British people couldn’t fulfil their basic needs and provide for themselves food, water, clothing and shelter.
Many people think that since we are naturally given certain opportunities in this country we should all live well and prosper somewhat equally. In ignorance, I too have been socialized to think that the homeless and poor create their own problems and if they wanted to do better, they could. In the past, I thought that the lower class and very poor were lazy and that they do nothing but drain the money out of the hard working pockets of people who have done what they could to take advantage of the opportunities of this country. Through education and life experience, I realize poverty is an epidemic that affects many people in our society. I believe it is an unfortunate fact that most people stricken by poor conditions will remain in those conditions throughout their lives.
They also live for the moment (present gratification). Some sociologists say that these attitudes and values prevent people from escaping poverty. For example, the attitudes and values of the poor mean that many don't stay in education, so they can't use qualifications to escape from their poverty. Some sociologists criticise this explanation of poverty because although it shows how people in poverty might adapt to their situation, it doesn't explain why people are in poverty in the first place. Another explanation of poverty is the poverty cycle.
Welfare was established to help people in need. This includes helping people who are unemployed, have a low income that qualifies, or other people who require assistance; most of these money resources come from a government agency or other program. (1) Many people consider that it was originally for poor people but that is considered false. According to some historians account, the concept of welfare in the US was to provide relief to those middle class families who lost their jobs during the depression.
“The definition of what is poverty or who is poor and how it can be alleviated is specific to each and every place” (Buchy, 2010), in other words, poverty is relative. The British sociologist Peter Townsend provides a much more relevant definition where to be in poverty people: “lack the resources to obtain the types of diets, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary...in the societies to which they belong...they are, in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities.” (Townsend, 1979, p.31) Nevertheless, the advantages of income and expenditure measures shall be explored along with the other dimensions of poverty measurement and why they are needed. There is much debate on the short-comings and the advantages of the measurement of poverty by poverty lines as used by the Worldbank. Certainly its primary advantage is that it provides a clear and tangible ”criterion for deciding if an individual or household is poor” (Allen and Thomas, 2000), and with a Millenium Development goal of reducing by one half the proportion of people in extreme poverty by 2015, this is the most logical measurement to equip. It allows for the
The problem of today’s society is the fight against poverty. With many societies today having low-income areas, education seems to be the first thing to be put on hold. Pakistan, the second country with the highest number of children out of schools, has severe poverty in which people are only living off two dollars a day (Haroon, 2011, Impact on Education on Poverty Reduction). This example shows the direct correlation that poverty has on one’s education. Through this correlation, one can see how such factors can keep children in impoverished homes throughout their lives.