An Analysis of Poverty in America

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An Analysis of Poverty in America The reason for poverty in the United States of America is not that victims of poverty lack the motivation and effort to change their financial situation. "Of the 34.6 million people living below the official poverty line in 2002, 12.1 million were children under 18; another 3.6 million were over 65. Millions more were female heads of households with children under 18 and no husband present, or were ill, disabled, or going to school; of the remainder, the majority worked either full or part time in the previous year, but their wages were not sufficient to elevate them above the poverty threshold"(Kornblum and Julian 192). This evidence alone disproves the notion that impoverished citizens are all lazy and unmotivated. In my findings, the reasons why people are poor in this country include technological changes that eliminate certain kinds of jobs, globalization, and the reluctance of the upper classes to share their wealth with the poor (Kornblum and Julian 191). Changes in technology have increased poverty rates because the development of machines to replace human labor puts the people who once did that work out of a job. "Economic growth and technological change fueled the expansion and accessibility of mass communication that makes poverty and income disparities readily observable" (Lerman). Economic growth and technological change in no way fall in with laziness as an observable cause of poverty. "The loss of labor-intensive manufacturing jobs puts individuals and families living in America's low-wage region at a great risk for poverty today" (Glasmeier). Even the most diligent, hard-working individual cannot control the country's technology, and therefore, is susceptible to loss of a job if a machine is invented to replace the labor that he or she performs. Another factor that contributes to poverty in the U.S. is

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