5)+Research+Paper

Poverty occurs not only around the world, but also in America. Many poor cannot buy food, shelter, clothing, and medical care that they need to survive comfortably. This causes people to become malnutrition, gain diseases, as well as become depressed, and frustrated. This leads to one of the biggest reasons for broken families. In America there is 35.9 million people living below the poverty line, 12.9 million of those people are children. Enough food is wasted in America each year to provide for 700 billion people around the world. That is a major problem. Many individuals cannot provide food for their families because of their own personal economic realities,and the distribution problems, but there are many programs and laws promoted by the government and other private foundations trying to prevent poverty.

The personal economic realities of about 14% of the population in the USA is that they are living below the poverty line. But African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and single mothers exceed the poverty rates of the general public. The U.S. has a fluctuating economy that goes through economic cycles that last for about 48 months it goes from a peak (highest point an economy can be) then contracts to the trough (the lowest point an economy can be) then it goes through an expansion phase and starts all over again. These cycles are a major effect on the poverty levels in America, so most people are poor at one time in their life but within a few year they can raise their income above the poverty line. But there has also been other factors that has been keeping people under the poverty line longer; such as the government cuts on funds to the poor such as welfare, disability, and Medi-Cal. There has also been a rise in single parent families which causes families to stay poor for even decades, instead of a few years. The reason single-parent families are struggling so much, is because if they do work they need child care which is hard to fine. This keeps single-parents from working as much as they could.

The poor tend to get sick easier and quicker then others do, because they lack many things they need to be healthy.The sickness keeps them from being able to have jobs. Many live in crowded run-down living houses, and can't move up to better living units. This is because those with jobs tend to have low wages and every little room to advance in the company. As for the steady, well-paying jobs, they are much more difficult to fine, keep and many people lack the education need to obtain such a jobs. As a result most of the poor either have low-wages or no job at all. It becomes difficult in times of inflation because people are being lay off, and there dollar can't buy all the same goods it used to so families end up making sacrifices.

Social Scientists state that poverty is vicious cycle that continues through the generations. When a child from a poor family goes to school for the first time; they go to the schools in the low tax areas, which effects the school income. Some also don't speak English well which puts them at a disadvantaged when trying to learn. When the school has a low income they aren't able to get all the supplies that a school in a richer area would. They end up not being as prepared for school as other children are. The same children tend to continuing the cycle by not going to college and staying in the same types of neighborhoods where they have children of their own. Poverty also is said to associates with crime, such as gangs and drug abuse which is also a extremely hard cycle to break. But because both poor and non poor people commit crimes the social scientist disagree that poverty is directly relates to crime. The people who have become ill or poorly educated are also less likely to become productive workers or active in the community which makes the poor have a small voice representing them in their community.

Not having jobs are also putting people into bad economic situations. Jobs are ended for many people each year when new technological advancements are created. "The Labor Department predicts that during the next decade there will be fewer workers in almost one-quarter of the 750 occupations it tracks, even as the total number of jobs increases by 10 percent." (The changing face of American jobs by Rick Hampson). Every often jobs are taken away by machines. In America many people live in fear that they well eventually have their jobs taken away be new advancements.

In addition to personal economic realities, many people suffer because of distribution problems, causing more poor. In a world where 1% of the richest people own 40% of the wealth there is a problem. There has been lots of concern if on whether economic inequality is a positive or negative. But studies involving the negative phenomena show that those faced with economic inequality end up experiencing shorter life expectancy, higher disease rates, homicide, teenage pregnancies, emotional depression and end up in the prison. Though there are distribution problems, the government does try to put programs together to help fight against poverty.

The federal government has three major ways they chose to fight the disease of poverty. These weapons are meant to improve jobs opportunities, educational programs, and social welfare programs. Though these programs exists many Americans feel that the government is not doing enough to help support those in need and stop poverty.

Measures to improve job opportunities include promoting growth and stability in the work force. They create new jobs through the federal Job Training Partnership Act, by training under privileged and under skilled people, to be prepared for the work force. We also have the Job Corps that gets job for the unemployed ages 16 through 22. As well as many other programs. The main law put down by the federal government to help improve poverty is an minimum-wage requirement for people to be paid to survive. But many people argue that the minimum-wage does more harm for unemployment then good, because minimum-wage means that companies can't afford to hire as many people as they had hired in the past therefore raise the unemployment rate even higher.

Although the education programs help many under privileged people they can't reach every poor person, there is simply not enough funds to help all. These programs are meant to help all ages. Such programs are "head start" that provides education, medicine, and social benefits to preschool children. In high school it is now mandatory to take a second language at an attempt to better educated the children. Schools also provide extra curricular classes when you are on time with all your credits. For student who are planing on going to post secondary education there are many scholarships provided to all types of people. If your not able to get scholarships low interest loans are also available to help pay for your schooling. Some schools even allow work study were you could work for your education to be payed, so there are many options available to succeed. They also have many basic education programs for adults to help them learn reading skills, writing skills, and arithmetic.

There are also social welfare programs that help by providing money, food, medical care, and other aid to the poor and other groups. The government also provides two main sources of aid. Such as social insurance and public assistance. Social insurance usually covers people or families who have worked in the past and had to paid a special tax. Social insurances provides programs such as social security, unemployment, and workers compensation. Social security is provided to retired people, disabled workers, and there families. Social security helps with medical benefits as well. Unemployment benefits are provided to workers who just lost there jobs, and needs money to get by till the next job. To be able to keep your unemployment you must prove that you have been searching for a job. Workers compensation is given to worker who have been injured on the job, and cannot work the way they used to. But public aid provides services for anyone regardless of whether or not they have a work history. Public aid provides services such as cash aid for the poor, food stamps and other nutrition program, medicaid, supplemental security income, and day care programs. Though these programs are provided they can't reach everyone, with all the recent budget cuts. Even so cash aid for the poor, provides money to those who can not support themselves or there independents. They also provide food stamps to low income families to be able to exchange for groceries. Other programs also provide food, such as churches, soup lines, and the angle food program. There is also medicaid that pays for medical expediences that families wouldn't normally be able to pay. Supplement security income provides a minimum income to the aged and disability. Day care is provided to low income families so their parents can get job training outside.

We can see that poverty is a problem in fact there's no way to be able to completely end poverty. People who are poor can't provide all the food, shelter, clothing and medical care needed to survive comfortably. With 1% of the most wealthy adults owning 40% wealth in the world, we know something isn't right. But the government does do things to help those who are going through hard times.Such as jobs opportunities, educational programs, and social welfare programs. But the government can't reach everyone. There is simply to many people who need help. So if you lend out a helping hand many will appreciate it.