Is Poverty A Social Justice Issue

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Poverty is a major social justice issue across the world. In America alone, 14.5% of the population live below the poverty line. Not only is poverty an issue alone, but it also causes other social justice issues. Poverty causes other social justice issues because in impoverished areas there is an increased rate of crime, there are bad health conditions, and education is below average. First, the crime rate is greater in impoverished areas. To the average american family, it seems like a bad act to steal because they have all of the necessary goods. However, in the eyes of an impoverished person, when his or her family needs essentials like food but does not have the money for it, that someone will go to great extremes to provide for his or her family. One article says that an impoverished 15 year old kid is likely to participate in violence (Rehorn). For the poor, stealing can be the only way that the person gets essentials. Also since money is so valuable, there could be fights and violence over anything that can help impoverished people make money. …show more content…

Areas where the impoverished live are very unsanitary like in a trash filled alley. These unsanitary conditions make it a lot easier for a human to get sick compared to someone who lives in a clean house. Also once a poor person gets sick, he has to just deal with the illness. During this time, medicine and doctor visits are very expensive even with health insurance. As a result, more permanent damage is caused by illnesses. One statistic says that children living in poverty are more susceptible to mental illness as they grow older (Rehorn). Plus since there is no healthcare, it is more likely for someone to die with a serious

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