The lack of motivation caused by years of not having a job and watching your family suffer in poverty is a condition that not too many of us are familiar with. “Native American Poverty,” by Tom Rodgers justifies the allegations that a large percentage, about 25%, of the Native Americans live in poverty. “According to the US Census Bureau, these Americans earn a median annual income of $33,627. One in every four (25.3 percent) lives in poverty and nearly a third (29.9 percent) are without health insurance coverage.” The lack of money has become a huge component in the dismemberment of the culture that the Natives so lavishly submerged themselves into, and the picking up other undesirable traits such as drinking. The
People are struggling to survive everyday because they have no food and shelter. These people may always dig through the trash to find something to eat for the day, not knowing if they will find anything. Families may always live in horrible conditions, having no other choice, because they do not have enough money. It’s extremely hard for them to find well paying jobs in these countries. For most of these people it’s nearly impossible to get out of poverty because they were born and raised in that culture, unless other people who aren’t in poverty help them out.
The population was estimated to have dropped 50-60%, so the prices of goods rapidly dropped, since there were so few people still alive to buy it. The lower levels of the social chain, like the peasants, serfs, farmers, and factory workers were struck the hardest. (Pollama) Since their living and work conditions were not very sanitary, and their living spaces were often cramped and dirty, they were the easiest targets for the plague. All of the jobs that these people had were now open, and available for people to take. Since the serf population had gotten ridiculously low, plantation owners were forced to start paying workers to tend the farms.
Poverty in Athens, Ohio Because of poor economies and lack of education people in Athens Ohio are suffering and need help to provide, shelter, pay bills, and feed their families. Over 40 million people live in poverty in the U.S.A, and 5% out of 31% are kids in poverty. People in poverty loose many jobs like coal mining and other contractual jobs because they moved overseas or they got closed down. People in poverty need houses. When they get one, they would need money for food and utilities.
Many were not motivated or properly taught by teachers, and in fact began to fail out or drop out of school. Most do not go onto College and most cannot afford College because of their low income families. In order to receive financial aid you must be a good student, and without the right education these students do not have good grades. It is a vicious cycle in our society that needs to be corrected. Education is one of the most important factors in a person’s life, and it needs to be the most important thing in our
Lower-income children are not always given the same opportunity to receive a high quality education. When impoverished children are subjected to an education where there is a 35 to 1 student-teacher ratio and limited amount of class materials and resources such as books, they are sent a message that no one values them or their education, causing many students to lose their passion for education. The impoverished are also viewed as individuals who cannot handle their finances and save for a rainy day. Many like to believe that the impoverished do not know the value of a dollar, and only splurge on frivolous things. The reality is that lower-income families barley makes enough to cover their bills.
For example, 14,000 kids have been positively affected by the Michigan Earned Income tax credit, but because it has been cut by 14%, low-income youth are unable to receive the benefits (kidscount). Youth in families that are receiving unemployment are affected because unemployment was cut from 26 weeks to 20 weeks and cash assistance has become more difficult to receive (kidscount). Poverty affects the youth in many ways, such as their family life and education. Many children are neglected in cases of low-income families. 32,500 children have been neglected in 2010, and in Ingham County 42 percent of children have been abused or neglected (milhs.org).
In Living wage sure beats welfare, they say William Bole reports that Rev. Doug Miles found that many of those lining up for the food pantry were holding down full time jobs. “They just couldn’t live on what they were making.” (Bole) In an effort to fix this the Rev. Doug Miles pushed for a living wage, far more than the current minimum wage at the time. The minimum wage that welfare reform was expecting people to live off of was in fact not enough to even support the buying of food.
Poverty has increased due to a high unemployment rate, lower wages for many people, and a decreasing amount of public assistance benefits. Since the start of the recession, many people have lost their jobs and have been unable to find new employment or have been forced to work for wages far lower than they had previously been paid. In 1996, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which provided cash assistance to poor families with children, was replaced with a grant program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). This program has not been able to keep up with inflation causing a higher poverty level among the already poor which has resulted in families not being able to afford housing (“Why are People Homeless,”
Meanwhile, to make matters worse, State funding is down twenty-two percent over the same time period. Severe Cuts in State funding and drastic spikes in cost have caused the disastrous situation that many Americans have found themselves in recently. (Coy,