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Disadvantages Of Poverty

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The combination of a government safety net built on the ability to work and a low-wage labor market increasingly designed not to deliver a living wage has delivered a vicious one-two punch to the would-be working poor. This is the main cause of “extreme poverty” or the equivalent of families living on $2.00 per person, per day. According to the book aptly named book “$2.00 a Day” by Kathryn J. Edin and Luke Shaefer, the number of American currently affected by this is one and a half million households, including about three million children in 2011. Addressed in chapter four of the book ‘By Any Means Necessary’, a major flaw in the welfare chain is exposed: the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), its limitations, and the importance of cash as a substitute for the program to those in extreme poverty. If you considered SNAP as an income equivalent to cash within the pool of families living in extreme poverty, the number of households making $2.00 a day with these government benefits comes to 800,000 or about half of the extreme poverty population. This comparison shows how important SNAP is to those living is such dire situations. But although the importance of this government allotment is great, its limitations have been exposed to some degree. While SNAP may reduce hardship for these struggling families, it doesn’t help them exit the trap of extreme destitution the way cash can. Attached to SNAP along with its long faced stigma is the inflexible nature of the

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