Poverty in America

Part 1: All across the state, all across the country, and all across the entire globe, there has been, is, and always will be the issue of poverty. Poverty as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possession.” Poverty is defined by the United States government by ‘poverty thresholds’ that sets a certain annual income per number of family members relying on that income, where any family that falls below that line is officially poor as labeled by the government. Poverty is an issue that, if not taken care of, leads to hunger and homelessness, among other problems. The United States really needs to focus on this growing problem that is afflicting literally millions of Americans all over the country and is leading to extremely dire consequences.

The current U.S. poverty thresholds of annual income as a relation to number of family members are very low considering the number of family members. If one person living on $10,830 or more a year, they are considered by the United States to not be poor. The numbers adjust proportionally as more and more family members are added to the equation, but if everything is taken into consideration with that small amount of money that keeps a family officially ‘not poor,’ most if not all of this income is used on the simple basics of life; food and shelter, leaving nothing to be spent on improving one’s position in the world or living conditions. But they still are getting enough money to survive on their own, or for their family. For those below the poverty line, anything under the income threshold on the chart, life is just terrible. In 2008, California had a statewide poverty level of 13.3%, which translates into roughly 4,888,637 Californians who are living below the poverty line. This is quite a bit up from reported 12.7 percent recorded in 2004. These percentages are almost identical to that of the United States as a whole, which measured with the same poverty thresholds with 12.6% of Americans living below the poverty line in 2004 and 13.2% in 2008, which means that 40,135,884 Americans were living below the poverty line in 2008, a statistic that has likely stayed the same or even risen into 2010. These staggering numbers are completely unacceptable. The United States without a doubt one of the greatest nations on the planet, and yet we are still unable to prevent over 40 million American citizens from living below the poverty threshold. Poverty is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with, because the results of inaction can literally be death from lack of money to maintain the basics of life.

A family is ‘food secure’ if it, throughout the year, never has a time where the family has to worry about or deal with food availability. In 2008, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that about 85% of Americans were ‘food secure.’ Pretty good? Not really. That means that at some time in the year of 2008, and in many cases multiple times, 15% of Americans were living in fear of or dealing with not having access to food. This number of insecure Americans is up from the 2007 number of merely 11.1% food insecure Americans. The issue of poverty in the United States is directly related to the poverty issue, because of the obvious reason that food costs money. Poverty leads to hunger, which leads to eventual starvation. But hunger isn’t the only direct problem from poverty.

Homelessness is another massive issue that is evident around the world. Street performers, beggars, and people sleeping on the sidewalk are major parts of every city, all of whom add up to about 3.5 million Americans who are homeless, as recorded in 2008. This is a small percentage of Americans as a whole, but it is still a big issue, when our country has this many people who are living without any type of regular shelter. Homelessness too has been on the rise recently, in 2004 the amount of homeless Americans was reported to be about 2.5 million, so we have made quite the jump in a short 4 years, which interestingly directly correlates to the poverty rise in the United States.

Poverty is a problem that, if proper reform is made, can be solved and with it, our nation’s issues of homelessness and hunger.

Part 2: Clearly, poverty is a big issue. But what is our government doing about it? The United States government is funding several programs such as the Corporation for National Community Service and the AmeriCorps program, which both help move the country closer to a poverty free America. These programs are helping out the impoverished a great deal but in the end, they will not solve our national poverty problem. However, these programs are steps in the right direction and are good examples for what should be done.

The Corporation for National Community Service is a government funded program that’s mission is ‘to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.’ The CNCS focuses on ways it can attain community involvement, sponsoring programs that act on the local level, and get the whole community involved in working together towards a common goal. The CNCS promotes and funds community service, along with providing these programs with willing workers nationwide. The CNCS works by funding 3 key organizations: Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America.

The Senior Corps is a program that takes senior volunteers (over the age of 55) with expertise in a certain field, and uses their knowledge in that field to be mentors, supervisors, coaches, or companions to people for community service projects. The idea that when one hits 55, they are instantly free from all need to help the community is one that is rapidly disappearing as the Senior Corps continues to gain backing. Whether it be building houses or immunizing children, whatever the previous expertise of a senior, it can be put to use through the Senior Corps. The Senior Corps is a great way to help out the community, because many seniors who are retired have little to do with their time, and with Senior Corps, they are able to help the betterment of those in community who are in need of the assistance.

Learn and Serve America is a program of the Corporation of National Community Service that focuses on one of the key solutions to poverty: education. Many times people who are living in poverty want to get out of their current positions, but without a decent education of any sort, they are unable to get much more than a cheap fast food chain job. LSA focuses on creating programs that get students involved in their education, so they are concentrating on learning and education. LSA also provides funding for training and technical assistance for teachers and schools in America that are in need. LSA is another government program that is assisting in the fight to end poverty.

But the most effective program sponsored by the CNCS is the AmeriCorps program. The AmeriCorps program takes any and all workers who are looking to either volunteer or work for a humble wage to participate in any of their myriad of programs. AmeriCorps offers opportunities to tutor and mentor disadvantaged youth, fight illiteracy, improve health services, build affordable housing, help communities respond to disasters, and more. AmeriCorps is a great solution to the problem of poverty through all their individual focuses on programs, sponsoring volunteers to organize and work with individual programs throughout the country, all of which have helped stop poverty in their own ways.

The government is taking steps toward ending poverty by funding these programs that strengthen communal involvement towards the betterment of society, but these programs, unless funded more, are not enough to bring about an end to poverty in the United States.

Part 3: The Government’s role in solving the state and nation’s continual problem of poverty has been one of assisting and funding programs that focus on community building, and in doing this, the government is showing us the way. The reason why our country has so many people living below the poverty line, barely making it, or in many cases not making it at all, is because our communities have lost their sense of togetherness. In order for a society to truly be able to function properly, everyone in it must be committed to a common goal of the betterment of the society. This is not how Americans live. Our country is too focused on the capitalistic, dog eat dog constant fight to have the bigger salary, the bigger house, to achieve the ‘American Dream.’ This idea that success in life is measured by the size of one’s paycheck is something that is simply downright wrong. In our quest to always be the ‘best,’ we have lost our sense of being a true community. Those dedicated to becoming as rich as possible just get richer and rise further and further away from the rest, leaving the masses of people who did not achieve the ‘American Dream’ to suffer with no money and no help. This needs to end.

Community service is now generally seen as something that is a punishment to criminals, and not something that the average American should have to do. This goes all the way back to Aesop’s original saying: “United we stand, divided we fall.” A community is defined as “a unified body of individuals.” A community that is comprised of selfish individuals who only care for the betterment of themselves is not a community at all; it is simple people who leave near each other. America’s problem is that it no longer has any true communities; instead we have cold cities that run on greed and self-service. If America was able to turn this around, we would be so much stronger as a nation. This is not to say that there is no one that is trying to change this. Programs such as the Habitat for Humanity program are setting the example for exactly what should be done. The Habitat for Humanity program works by taking the applications of families that are below the poverty line or very close to it, and are working to do everything they can to get out, but really could use a helping hand. Habitat for Humanity takes these people and gives them that helping hand, providing them with affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity works by using members from the AmeriCorps program to be leaders and workers long term, but the real help comes from the volunteers, who come from all over, in groups with companies, schools and churches, or even simply individual volunteers, which is how I participated. Habitat for Humanity is a program that is showing how when the community comes together and works, the possibilities are endless. Since 1978 in the U.S. alone, Habitat for Humanity has built or restored over 30,000 homes and is constantly building more. Community service works, and Habitat for Humanity is a perfect example of a program that really has made a difference.

If America is to solve the issue of poverty, the people must make a critical change in their mindset towards living as a community and helping their fellow man. This can be done quite easily individually, but as a whole it is going to take a lot of work, but the end result will make our country unimaginably better.

Sources:

1. McCarty, Maggie. "Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs, and Recent Legislation ." Google Docs. The Library of Congress, 31 May 2005. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

2. Fleming, Robert. "Crisis: Homelessness Population Grows, Tent Cities Thrive." Black Star News 27 Mar 2009: 1. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

3. "Facts and Figures: The Homeless." PBS.org. Public Broadcasting Service, 26 Jun 2009. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

4. Nord, Mark, and Alisha Coleman-Jensen. "Food Security in the United States." United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 06 Nov 2009. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

5. "State and County QuickFacts." U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Census Bureau, 23 Feb 2010. Web. 07 Apr 2010. .

6. "THE 2009 HHS POVERTY GUIDELINES." Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

7. "Corporation for National and Community Service."National Service. Corporation for National and Community Service, 07 Apr 2010. Web. 07 Apr 2010. .

8. "Senior Corps." Senior Corps. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

9. "Learn and Serve America." Learn and Serve America. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

10. "AmeriCorps." Corporation for National and Community Service. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .