Glass half empty....Glass half full - Derek Jensen Poverty is something that can happen to anyone.
The actual cause of poverty is unknown. However, there are many things that are taken into consideration when determining what may be the cause. There are many studies that have shown the two major causes to be poor education and geographic location.
Statistics from the U.S Census Bureau
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (Housing and Household Statistics Division) the official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5%. Unfortunately these numbers don’t include the homeless who have no way to receive the census to participate. The Institute for Research on poverty said, “National poverty data is calculated using the official Census definition of poverty, which has remained standard since the early 1960’s.” Times have changed in Poverty and the standard at which people are considered to be poor should be updated.
Poverty varies by group and it represents an average over the entire population. “Blacks and Hispanics have poverty rates that greatly exceed the average.”(Who is Poor?) “The poverty rates also vary by region and within regions.” (Who is poor?) “In 2007 it was the greatest in the south at 14.2%, and statistically the same in the Midwest, northeast and the west at 11% to 12%. Rural areas are the hardest hit by poverty, partly because in such small areas there is not a lot of job opportunity and while many people think of poverty in the United States as primarily an urban problem, statistically that is just not the case. (O’Hare and Mather)
There is a very brief description of poverty. Poverty is defined by the lack of common things like food, water and shelter. There is a lot more to poverty than that. There needs to be a raised awareness for the lack of opportunity and inspiration. People can’t work if there is no employment. There are some resources out there to assist but no program is designed to get people out of poverty.
The programs are simply in place to help manage the impoverished state one is in. Unfortunately for most people born into poverty, they will stay that way throughout their entire lives. People born into poverty are at a serious disadvantage because they often have a hard time getting a proper education. The lack of having a good education only adds to the circumstances that cause poverty.
Poverty is very standard in many ways. People who have to struggle with poverty are no different than anyone not in their position. No one wants to be in poverty and though some people are under the impression that poverty is caused by laziness, that is just not the case. In fact, most of the people living in poverty are children.
The people stuck in poverty are in remote and scarce communities where there is little to no opportunity for employment. West Virginia for example is a very rural state. Most of the money made in West Virginia is off the land by mining. At the current time our economic stance has made it very hard to make any head way by surviving off the land.
The result of this will be an increase in poverty rates. During research I found that Hildago County, Texas had about 121, 000 children living in poverty. That’s a very rural area just like West Virginia. In West Virginia the highest rate was around 2,700 children in McDowell County.
What enables a person to stay in poverty?
There are so many factors that could enable an individual or family to stay in poverty. Housing costs are outrageous as well as health care. Two-thirds of the population cannot afford medical coverage. Unemployment is on its way to doubling due to our economic situation. In today’s society job security is merely a word because people are finding out more frequently that there are no guarantees. Even the families who are depending on the government assistance to help are seeing that more and more programs are being eliminated and the ones that are still functioning are hardly hanging on.
Can you pin point one single cause?
After all the research that I have done, reading articles and charts full of statistics, I have found that in most cases of poverty there is a serious lack of education or there are simply not enough jobs, even for the people who are very well educated. Many Americans have been instilled with the values of hard work and get very distraught at the fact all their efforts may be getting them nowhere.
There really is no way to pin point a single cause of poverty when there are so many serious things that have to be taken into consideration. Poverty is like one bad thing after another. There is no one simple solution to end poverty because there was not one single factor that plays in causing it. It’s a very serious devastation that has a hold of millions of families.
These families are everyday people like you and me that just want to have the American dream that as children they were all promised but never given the proper opportunity to receive.
Sources: Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. New York: Owl Books,
2002.
Read more at Suite101: Is There Really Only One Cause of Poverty?
http://www.suite101.com/content/is-there-really-one-cause-to-poverty-a302102#ixzz14nQ1TWil
http://www.suite101.com/content/is-there-really-one-cause-to-poverty-a302102
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