Poverty in America has climbed to its highest since 1993. 15.1 percent of Americans currently live under the poverty line (Stanglin). People all over the United States are falling into poverty due to various reasons such as: income, student loans, mortgages, unemployment, and most importantly, lack of education. The poor are becoming poorer, and the rich are becoming richer. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income, and the richest, 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of the world’s income (Shah).
Myth #5: Most of the poor are older Americans. About 10 percent of people 65 years and older are poor, but 35 percent of the poor are children under 18. Between 2000 and 2008, the incomes of people ages 25-54-especially men-decreased about 11 percent but increased by 8 percent for men ages 65-74. Myth #6: The poor get special advantages. The poor pay more for goods and services than do wealthier people.
This debate has been heated up through the Obama administration (Mankiw, 2012, p. 16). Throughout 2008 and 2009, the United States has experienced an economic downturn. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s economic guru, states “government assistance programs contribute to long-term employment …. By providing an incentive, and the means, not to work” (Mankiw, 2012, p. 309). As indicated in the article, the reduction of marriages, babies, and divorces are indicating that these items are proving too costly to incur during this downtime.
This inequality within our nation is the culprit behind America’s insignificant health. “Wealthy Americans make considerably more money than their counterparts in other wealthy countries, while the bottom 10% of our households make considerably less than poor people in Europe or Japan” (Page 228). The breach between America’s poor and rich is causing the overall health to lessen. The wealthy American will spend their money on unnecessary items that they will dissipate; “as private wealth become more concentrated, the quality of public life suffers” (228). Researchers have identified an association between household income inequality and mortality rates.
We live in the richest nation yet nearly 49 million of Americans struggle to put food on their table. Poverty by definition is the state of people not being able to pay for their daily needs. The United States faces two different categories of poverty; one is for individuals whose incomes are below the poverty line and the other is for those
Poverty could be simply defined as being economically poor but many researchers like to refer to it as the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions. In 2004 the census reported that 24.7 percent of blacks are in poverty, and that 8.6 percent of whites are in poverty (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty04/pov04hi.html). The poverty of the black community has seemed to decrease. The white community increased in poverty rate. Although people
01 Nov. 2010. <http://www.factcheck.org/here_we_go_again_bush_exaggerates_tax.html>. Klein, Ezra. "Ezra Klein - CBO: Extending the Bush Tax Cuts Will Hurt the Economy, Reduce Incomes." Blog Directory (washingtonpost.com).
Academic Search Complete . EBSCO. Web. 6 Feb. 2011. Twain, Mark.
These days are considered the most tragic days in the American economy. These days began the “New Era” or a time of low unemployment when general prosperity masked vast disparities in income. John Maynard Keynes said” The extraordinary speculation on Wall Street in past months has driven up the rate of interest to an unprecedented level” Bierman Jr. 1). “There is a warrant for hoping that the deflation of the exaggerated balloon of American stock valves will be for the good of the world” (Bierman 1). It started as the Dow Jones stock dropped twenty three percent on Tuesday October 29th; this resulted in a loss of $8-9 billion
The Wretched of The Earth. Translated by C. Farrington. New York: Grove Press. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy 1996 Small Wars and Invisible Genocides. Social Science & Medicine 43(5):889-900.