Minorities in the United States experience many issues from poverty to severe gaps in unemployment and resources. CLASP, a national anti-poverty nonprofit group tries to find solutions for low-income people/families by raising awareness of these issues. As stated on their web page:
“CLASP is committed to policy solutions that dismantle structural and institutional racism and recognize individuals as assets to their communities and the country. Far too many poor and low-income children and adults are marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, immigration status, or nationality. People of color are disproportionately affected when public programs are inadequately or inequitably funded. Public policies that are effective, inclusive, comprehensive,
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Programs like these are important for low-income minority families because according to the Urban Institute, there is a huge correlation between low-income minority families and education level. For an example, more than half of low-income Hispanic parents/care providers, and ⅕ of African American parents/care providers lack high school educations compared to white people. Even though it is possible for a guardian and/or parent to achieve middle-income status without a high school education, it is uncommon. Education in today’s society is important because it increases a family’s chances of having an income two times above the poverty level. Although this program benefits low-income minority families, it also benefits anyone of any race who never finished high …show more content…
This program is designed to help low-income families purchase food items. It also provides funding to support employment and training programs to help SNAP recipients obtain jobs to reduce their need for SNAP benefits. In 2011, SNAP served 44.7 million individuals in an average month. According to CLASP, unlike most other programs, SNAP is available to almost all households with low incomes. Although this program is readily available to most income families, it helps low income minority families substantially. Low-income African American families are more likely to live below the federal poverty level than other families, more than 53% are poor, compared with 39% of non-Hispanic whites, 44% of Hispanics. So, even though this program is beneficial to all low-income families, it helps low-income minorities a lot since they make up such a huge portion of the poverty
Today SNAP is the new name of the federal Food Stamp Program. “SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The name was changed to SNAP to meet the needs of clients, which includes a focus on nutrition and an increase in the amount of benefit received” ("supplemental nutrition,"2011). Another detail about SNAP is its ability to respond to changing needs caused by economic cycles or natural emergencies on the local, state and national levels. It is second to unemployment insurance in its responsiveness to economic changes. SNAP is very helpful to low-income families’ monthly resources, increasing the chance families is able to meet basic needs.
Morton explains that political, institutional, and structural factors lead to the segregation of poverty in minority communities because of their lack of access to educational and health service, reliable public transportation, and job (Morton 275). Morton recognizes that the achievement gap goes much deeper than the education realm and she believes
David J Lynch says that, “ [s]ocieties that manage a narrower gap between rich and poor enjoy longer economic expansions”, however, in the United States the gap between the have and have-nots has widened (source C). “This country is just getting worse and worse and worse … and that is not a recipe for stable growth” (source C). If we do not do something soon our capitalist country will fall. In order for the income inequality gap to lessen to create a more stable economy the government must invest in education and unionize workers and not provide higher taxation for the top one percent.
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
For the research that will be conducted, poverty will be measured through federal programs from the Great Society introduced by President Lyndon Johnson, which is a series of social programs established to reduce or eliminate poverty in urban environments. The federal programs that will be highlighted from the Great Society will be The Department of Housing (HUD), The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A brief description of these programs includes HUD, which deals with developing the housing in urban area for low-income individuals, The Economic Opportunity Act was established to help the improvement of education, while TANF is explained as a financial assistance to help individuals pay for food, shelter, utilities, and other expenses. Lastly, SNAP is defined as a food voucher issued by the government to individuals with low income.
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
The Elmira program is amongst one of the programs that have been developed. This program served vulnerable—mostly white, poor, young, and m...
“The problems of poverty, racism, and prejudice are so deeply intertwined in this country that it is difficult to talk about one without referring to the others”( Hansen-Turton, & Mortell.2014 P.34). The United States is a world with unlimited resources. Yet, our great nation is full of social issues that don’t seem to go away with just “best practices” and intervention which has increase “poverty” within every walk of life. With the increase of social issue so does the increase of crime, unemployment, and poverty.
Imagine standing in a pile of quicksand, while frantically trying to exit the sand that is literally trying to swallow you whole it becomes apparent that no progress is being made, and you are slowly falling deeper into the ground. This is what it’s like to be a part of the American lower- and lower-middle-class. While the rich have immeasurable room to get richer, Americans that identify with the lower classes find themselves scratching and clawing each month to keep their heads above ground to be able to feed their families pay their bills, and save money to send their children to college. Over the past 100 years, the gap between the lower, middle, and upper classes has grown significantly. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are left
Throughout the nation, education inequality affects many minority students that have low-income which reinforces the disparity between the rich and the poor. The amount of children that have a socioeconomic background of poverty in the United States is estimated to be 32.4 million (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2011). Since many of these children are from
The government provides enough government programs to share assistance with the 317,018,130 and counting Americans, leading them to have an enormous impact on America. They provide many financial benefits to Americans, such as a safety net in case of hardships, supplemental benefits to sustain a post retirement income, and job opportunities. During hard times, assistance programs can offer people a way to stay out of poverty. In 2012, Social Security kept roughly 21.4 million people out of poverty, and unemployment benefits helped an additional 2.3 million out of poverty. Without government assistance programs, many Americans would be living in poverty, which could lead to a rise in the crime rate, high school drop outs, and many families being evicted from their homes. Life withou...
In the United States where a vast majority of the country’s wealth is held by the top 1%, growing wealth inequality poses problems for economic and social mobility. Higher education itself is one of the key tools that the poorer population can utilize to ascend to the middle class; however, rising college tuition costs limit the use of this tool. Political corruption also has the ability to staunch progress of narrowing the wealth gap as politicians are bought and rewarded by the wealthy, resulting in a plutocracy with little representation for the poor. Along with politics, the United States’ loop-hole filled progressive tax system is barely progressive since capital gains are not taxed
In settings of community practice and organizing, organizers and leaders must consistently reassess the effectiveness of their outreach and goals they strive to reach. For example, in regards to youth education and empowerment, various models have been accepted as the benchmark, but each, in their own way, has failed to fulfill the expectations and goals they intended to reach. On another note, community organizers and leaders may fail to provide an equitable platform for the community members by failing to emphasize intersectionality. In both circumstances, community organizers and leaders must consistently reevaluate their approaches, strategies, and practices to serve the highest number of people and foster equity and inclusion within their community.