poverty in the us

POVERTY BEHIND THE RICH AMERICA

INTRODUCTION

How can we define poverty ? What are the grounds or indications that make a country poor ? Is poverty evaluation an objective or subjective matter ? Is poverty relative ? Before we go deeper into the issue of poverty in the United States , we must first look into the answers to these questions . By doing so , we will have a better understanding on the social issue currently faced by the US and how the Functionalist Perspective on Social Problems does relates to this issue

Most Americans see poverty

as a matter of destitution (R . Rector et .al . Destitution is indicated by the incapacity of a family to provide for nutritious food and shelter including a reasonable shelter (Poverty Pulse , 2002 . The said result was taken from the survey made by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in 2002 having this as a lead question "How would you describe being poor in the U .S " The results made homelessness , hunger and the inability to meet basic needs as indications . But the US government has its numerical basis for determining poverty which they call poverty line . Whoever falls below the line , after consideration of several criteria , is considered poor Officially , it is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB ) who is responsible in making directives or policies that are being used in the Unites States as guidelines for poverty measurement . In the OMB 's Statistical Policy Directive No .14 , poverty threshold is determined by the income of each individual or family depending on their number of children (under 18 years old ) and the size of the family itself . The 2003 Poverty Threshold Matrix is shown here in Table B .1 . For this purpose , poverty is defined in terms of money income before taxes excluding capital gains or non cash benefits (G . Fisher , 1992 . In consideration of this definition , we can draw out a conclusion that poverty is actually relative

Size of Family Unit Related Children Under 18 years old

(income in Dollars ) One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight More 1 person (unrelated individual

under 65 years old 9 ,573

65 years older 8 ,825 2 people

householder under 65 years old 12 ,321 12 ,682

householder 65 years older 11 ,122 12 ,634 3 people 14 ,393 14 ,810 14 ,824

4 people 18 ,979 19 ,289 18 ,660 18 ,725

5 people 22 ,887 23 ,220 22 ,509 21 ,959 21 ,623

6 people 26 ,324 26 ,429 25 ,884 25 ,362 24 ,586 24 ,126

7 people 30 ,289 30 ,479 29 ,827 29 ,372 28 ,526 27 ,538 26 ,454

8 people 33 ,876 34 ,175 33 ,560 33 ,021 32 ,256 31 ,286 30 ,275 30 ,019

9 people or more 40 ,751 40 ,948 40 ,404 39 ,947 39 ,196 38 ,163 37 ,229 36 ,998 35 ,572

Table B .1 Poverty Threshold Matrix for 2003 used by the US Bureau of Census

INDICATIONS OF POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

As per Bureau of Census , poverty in the United States increased 20 between 2000 and 2004 (S . Rice . This will evaluate the indications of poverty in the United States by looking into the different economic aspects of the lives of the Americans . The said aspects include cash income , housing condition , insurance coverage , health and nutrition

Housing Conditions as Poverty Indication

In the 2001 survey made by the U .S . Department of Commerce and U .S Department of Housing and Urban Development , 46 of the 35 million poor people of America own their homes . A typical poor house has three bedrooms at least one and a half baths , a garage and a porch or patio Also , 30 own one or two cars . Of the poor households , 76 have air conditioning and Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning and that is besides the 67 households having more than two rooms per person . Here is more-97 have color TV half of which have two or more televisions and almost 80 own appliances like microwave ovens stereo , automatic dishwasher and VCR or DVD player . With all these facts , it is but ordinary to have the fact that only six percent of the poor households are overcrowded

Health and Nutrition

Hunger and malnutrition have been major determinants of a country 's poverty . Since the definition of poverty encompasses a family 's access of nutritious food , hunger and malnutrition should be indications of people or households experiencing poverty . In America , 6 .8 million which include 6 .3 million are adults and 567 thousand children , are experiencing hunger in 2002 (M . Nord et . al . However , the researchers qualified hunger ' in their research as food insecurity , that is eating cheaper food or that below the preference of the people (USDA 2002 . Using this category , USDA classified only 7 .6 of the households as food insecure without hunger . Therefore , the considered poor people in America do not necessarily experience lack of food

Household Payment for monthly obligations such as electricity bills and monthly house /apartment rental are good bases for determining financial security of every household . IN the 2003 Money Income of Households provided by the Bureau of Census , the income of the Unites States households including all races , have dropped from 43 ,631 in 2001-2002 average income to 43 ,349 in 2003 . By percentage , there are 12 .5 of the Americans who dropped below the poverty line in 2003 , which is up from 12 .1 in 2002 . Although the percentage decline is somehow relatively small , the important thing to note here is the fact of a decline in the average income which should not be taken for granted

Insurance Coverage

The Bureau of Census classified Insurance Coverage in their report as either government or private insurance coverage . On this ground , the report classified a person as uninsured ' if he is not covered by any of these insurance . On the other hand , those who are covered by any of those insurance are classified as insured (C . Walt , et .al . In the United States , the percentage of uninsured individuals increased to 15 .6 in 2003 from 15 .2 in 2002 although the percentage of insured individuals increased by one million compared to 2002 data

CAUSES OF POVERTY AND THEIR PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Although poverty is measured by economic resources , poverty is not only an economic problem of each country but is also considered as a major social problem . Although poverty is relative because of the different standards set by each country depending on their general economic status , poverty is still a major nationwide issue common to almost every country of which the United States is not exempted . There are two major arguments as to the main causes of poverty : individual failure and a structural failure . In the first argument , individual characteristics are said to be the reasons for one 's poverty (M . Rank , et . al . These characteristics include laziness , virtuous morality , low educational attainments and incompetence in terms of labor market skills . This perspective therefore attributes poverty as individual responsibility In the United States , Americans dominantly believe that poverty is caused by individual failure . In recent surveys , Americans rank individual behaviors as the major causes of poverty- laziness , lack of effort , and low ability (M . Gilens , 1999

On the other hand , structural failure perspective argues that poverty is a result of the government to provide opportunities for decent employments and discrimination . This view on poverty is parallel to the Functionalist Perspective on social problems . According to this perspective , social problems arise due to the presence of disruptions in a certain system . This is what it seems to be what the authors (Mark Rank and collegues ) is trying to point out while stressing a failure on the part of the governent . In the December 2003 issue of the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare , the author Mark Rank and his colleagues have identified lines of evidence that point to structural failure as the main cause of poverty in the United States

A ) The United States labor market failed to provide enough decent jobs for all families-proponents of this argument stressed that the United States government should not focus on policies that increase the supply of employment rather it should focus on labor demand policies (T Bartik . A study in 2000 found out that there are 25 of full-time workers in America classified as low-wage earners for the reason that they are earning less than 65 of the national median earnings (T Smeeding et . al . Over the years , a mismatch between jobs and the jobseekers continue to increase as evidence by a 15 million unemployed Americans in 2004 from 7 million in 2001 (B . Schiller . What the researchers found as main cause for this problem is the government 's legislative procedure in increasing the minimum wage for earners . Due to the long an unnecessary long process , the proposed minimum wage is always fall behind successive increase in the cost of living before it gets approved . In line with the functionalist perspective , the organisms or the elements of the society must actively intervene to improve the social and economic status of the American society

B ) The ineffectiveness of American social policy to reduce levels of poverty through governmental social safety net programs - By focusing on individual characteristics , we lose sight of the fact that governments can and do exert a sizeable impact on reducing the extent of poverty within their jurisdictions (Rank et . al , 2003 . The Interactionist perspective holds that social problems arise when people come to be aware of certain behaviors that they consider as social problems . Considering those who believe that individual characteristics are the causes of poverty , we can say that they maybe the proponents of the Interactionist perspective . However , this writer believes that if there be lazy and incompetent Americans , it does not necessarily mean that their behaviors contribute largely to the social problem of poverty in the United States

The government has all the power to change the existing norm . Given that the Americans are lazy and incompetent to the point of having these deviant behaviors as the main reason for their poverty . Does the government run out of means to regulate such behaviors ? Is the government weak enough to compel the lazy Americans to work ? Is America incapacitated to provide training and education for its incompetent citizens ? Like other governments , too much conflicting political interests exist in the midst of the American society . Above all contemporary and latest methods of addressing problems , the government must always learn to prioritize . The interest of the public first before any individual and political interest this is the reason why those in the government seats are called public servants . The United States is experiencing a crisis where the demands of the economic are colliding directly with those of the political (Jack Kemp , 1990 .Too much debate on poverty concerns must be minimized in to address the problem properly and the soonest possible . Whatever good measure taken when it 's late is never good enough

POLICIES AND PROGRAMS FOR FIGHTING POVERTY

To be fair with the United States government , this will also look into the changes in its policies relative to its effort in addressing poverty within its jurisdiction . As had been stressed earlier , the United States government is not weak nor is poor enough to let things just pass by . Relative to assisting the poor , the U .S . has effectively reduced the rate of poverty for a particular group has been that of the elderly (Rank , et . al . The Social Security and Medicare programs have made a great deal in reducing poverty especially among the elderly . As a determinant of poverty , insurance coverage has been proven to be a deterrent of poverty . The most evident proof is the fact that 80 percent elderly were taken out of poverty over the last 40 years (Luxemburg Income Study , 2001 . By comparison , United States poverty rate was leveled down to 18 in 2004 from 29 in 1994 after the said programs were efficiently implemented , according to the 2001 Luxemburg Income Study

In the speech delivered by Jack Kemp on June 10 , 1990 who was then the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development , the secretary made mention of eight measures to combat poverty . One of the said measures is cutting the capital gains tax to 15 percent for the nation and should be eliminated in distress inner cities and rural communities . The said measure was adapted by President Bush . Under the current administration , there are several bills lined up in the congress waiting for the lawmakers to take the step towards the implementation of these measures by passing them into laws . Such bills include the President 's Child Care Tax Credit which aims to reduce tax burden on low-income families and unemployed parents the New Shelter Plus Care Program which aims to provide for a wider range of facilities for day care centers , mental health , job-training and drug-abuse treatment facilities and President Bush ' HOPE Legislation and Operation Bootstrap . Despite the differences in race , class and values in the American society , the Functionalist Perspective of Social Problems teaches us to actively intervene in to improve our social institutions thereby addressing our social problem . Since poverty is United States ' social problem , we must join hands to alleviate our society from poverty

CONCLUSION

By looking into the nature of poverty , we were able to draw the idea that the concept of poverty is relative . Relative in the sense that the poverty line of each country is determined by the median income of the whole nation and therefore poverty level depends on how wealthy or how poor a nation is . In the case of the United States , this had presented the different indications of poverty from housing conditions health and nutrition , household income and insurance coverage . By doing so , we were able to find out that by United States poverty line , the growing percentage of poverty in the nation should be paid more attention . This also explored the causes of poverty and the corresponding recommendations by reliable researchers and personalities Finally , we were able to look into the changes in policies that the United States government had implemented and are currently pursuing as poverty alleviation measures . Based on the gathered data , this writer found the Functionalist Perspective on Social Problems as the most relevant among the three perspectives

REFERENCES

Bartik , T . H (2002 . Poverty , Jobs , and Subsidized Employment Challenge , 45 , 100-111

Fisher , Gordon M . HYPERLINK "http /aspe .hhs .gov /poverty /s /background-92 .shtml " Poverty Guidelines for 1992 . Social Security Bulletin , Vol . 55 , No . 1 , Spring 1992 , pp . 43-46

Gilens , M (1999 . Why Americans Hate Welfare : Race , Media , and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy . Chicago : University of Chicago Press

Kemp , Jack . An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Poverty in America and How to Combat It . Heritage Lecture 263 . June 10 ,1990 Retrieved on June 17 , 2007 from HYPERLINK "http /www .heritage .org /Research /Welfare /HL263 .cfm http /www .heritage .org /Research /Welfare /HL263 .cfm

HYPERLINK "http /www .foodfirst .org /progs /humanrts /hungerinamerica .html " \l "link1 " Nord , Mark and Margaret Andrews . Reducing Food Insecurity in the United States : Assessing Progress Toward a National Objective , The United States Department of Agriculture ad Economic Research Service Report , May 2002

Rank , Mark R , et . al . American Poverty as a Structural Failing Evidence and Arguments . HYPERLINK "http /findarticles .com /p /articles /mi_m0CYZ " Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare . HYPERLINK "http /findarticles .com /p /articles /mi_m0CYZ /is_4_30 " December 2003

Rector , Robert E . and Kirk A . Johnson . Understanding Poverty in America . Backgrounder 1713 . January 05 , 2004 . Retrieved on June 15 2007 from HYPERLINK "http /www .heritage .org /Research /Welfare /bg1713 .cfm http /www .heritage .org /Research /Welfare /bg1713 .cfm

Rice , Sabriya 'Poverty and Poor Health are Intertwined , experts say CNN News . September 04 , 2006 . Retrieved on June 15 , 2007 from HYPERLINK "http /www .cnn .com /2006 /HEALTH /08 /29 /poverty .health /index .html http /www .cnn .com /2006 /HEALTH /08 /29 /poverty .health /index .html

Schiller , B . R (2004 . The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination Upper Saddle River , NJ : Prentice Hall

Walt , C . De-Navas , et .al 'Income , Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States : 2003 . August 2004

Luxembourg Income Study (2000 . LIS Quick Reference Guide . Syracuse NY : Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs , Syracuse University

U .S . Bureau of the Census (2003a . Poverty in the United States 2002 . Current Population Reports , Series P60-222 . Washington , DC : U .S Government Printing Office ...