The Cause Of Poverty In The United States

Poverty is classified as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. According to the United States Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, there were 46.7 million people in poverty. Poverty has always been present around the world, whether the country be rich or poor. There are numerous causes of poverty ranging anywhere from the lack of an individual to exploitation by people and businesses with power and influence. Over 21,000 children around the world die every day because people in poverty have a hard time affording medical care and cannot seek medical attention for their sick child.

“Changing the Face of Poverty” written by Diana George, a professor of English at Virginia

Working families with high-income are more likely to pay for childcare than families with low-income. Whenever the working families with low-income do pay, they expensive care that is less expensive, but pay a much larger share of their income for it. (Greenberg) According to Greenberg, “most low-income families do not receive child-care assistance.” Not having child care assistance has lowered the likelihood that parents can sustain employment and has some hostile effects on families. (Greenberg) Parents who are not receiving childcare support might choose childcare that is not stable and is a lower-quality, go into debt, lose time from work, return to welfare, or be forced to choose between paying for childcare and paying for rent or clothes. (Greenberg) Even though how providing childcare assistance affects parental employment has not yet been experimentally evaluated by researchers, based on a set of studies, it has been found that parents with low-income are more likely to get and keep work if they are receiving help meeting childcare costs. (Greenberg) Children whose parents receive high-quality childcare assistance is actually associated with basic cognitive skills and children’s behavioral skills in the

In the article, “Changing the Face of Poverty” it is stated that “more than [thirty-five] million Americans – one out of every seven – are officially poor. More than one in five American children are poor and the poor are getting poorer.” (George 676) Among racial and ethnic groups, African Americans had the highest poverty rate, followed by Hispanics and whites. According to The State of Working America, 45.8 percent of young black children live in poverty, compared to 14.5 percent of white children. It does not seem like many people see poverty as an issue, bell hook argues that poverty in this culture is actually “seen as synonymous with depravity, lack and worthlessness.” (George 673) I, myself have never really paid attention to things like poverty because I did not feel like it mattered to me or affected me in anyway, but even though it does not affect me now that does not mean it did not affect me before and even if I am not a current part of the poverty rate it should still matter to me as well as everyone else in the world. If no one cares about an issue, the issue is not going to get resolved and people are still going to be struggling. In Diana’s article it is believed that our understanding of what poverty is and how we might address it is limited