The Paradox Of Poverty In America

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Poverty in America is a pandemic that has never been more relevant than in today’s society. There are sociological, stratification, competitive, economic and political factors that influence American society. The purpose of this academic essay is to analyze the source, “Rethinking American Poverty” by Mark Rank, and connect factors, ideas, and terms in relation to the article. There are sociological perspectives that support the paradox of poverty, that when analyzed with social shifts, can lead to a less impoverished nation. There are three sociological perspectives that support the author’s thesis. He states that the paradox of poverty in a wealthy America is because of “how we as a society have tended to conceptualize the issue of poverty …show more content…

It is the process of communication which forms meanings for individuals. When analyzing “Rethinking American Poverty” by Mark Rank, the assumption is that stratification is impacted by elements such as individual lifestyles, core beliefs, daily choices and interactions, and the very idea of oneself. The strength in the symbolic interactionist perspective is that these elements can impact greatly the qualifications of individuals in society when it comes to opportunity, jobs, family, and stability. The symbolic interactionist perspective supports the thesis of the article, because people as a society fail to act because of lack of opportunity and the political, social, and economical factors. The weakness of this perspective is that in this paradox, the elements impact individuals physiologically of how they view their ability to move into another classification. This theory unfortunately continues to support explanation of poverty in …show more content…

Americans need to accept and understand that poverty is mainly caused by factors out of the individual’s control and failures economically, and politically. These results in a very low measure of decent paying wages. In fact, there is a rise in low paying jobs, part time jobs, and jobs that do not offer benefits, which leads people further into absolute poverty. Capitalism and economic growth are the real reasons why American society has failed to address the issue of poverty. This poverty paradox leaves people out of the competition based on factors such as lack of education or skill, transportation, mailing address, or banking

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