Out Of Poverty In The United States Essay

“People that are in poverty have made poor choices and put themselves there but you don’t see any of them working to get themselves out of it.” This statement is completely false. I know of multiple families that have struggled to get themselves out of poverty and it wasn’t completely their fault. In one family, a man named Michael (Mike; currently age 34) has worked since the age of 13 and started saving his money for a car for when he got his license. Mike was finally able to afford a car and bought one and then he had a child named Alyssa with a lady named Tammy about 2 years later. They had another child named Taylor 1.5 years later and everything was going well, and then Tammy and Mike had began fighting very often and had to split up. Tammy got addicted to doing drugs so the children got left with Mike who worked 45+ hours a week and still couldn’t support the family that well. 4 years later, Mike met someone else named Becky and they had a child together

named Michael Jr. and Becky already had 3 other children. Becky wouldn’t work so Mike had to start working more often and then it was even harder to support their family because they had 7 people in the household that had to be supported by one person. The couple eventually split up and Michael was alone for years before meeting someone new. The new woman (Michelle) had one child and Mike had 3 children and they moved in together. Michael wanted to move back in with his mother, Becky, and Mike allowed it and then there was only 5 people living in the house. They currently live a comfortable life, but they are still $12,000 below the poverty line.
Before researching more about poverty in working families, I knew that the United States has one of the highest rates of poverty in the world. I also knew that poverty isn’t just homelessness; it could mean living a comfortable life, but still technically living well below the poverty line. Since I didn’t know much about poverty in working families, I wanted to know why people end up in poverty and how often people get out of it. By asking these questions, I found out that people usually end up in poverty because of major changes like marriage, divorce, or a change in income.
My first source, “How Do People End Up in Poverty or Homelessness?” STEINBACH COMMUNITY was used because I wanted to know the reasons people end up in poverty and why it’s hard to get out of it. Within the website, I found that family environment and job loss are the main reasons people get in poverty and lack of connection is the reason they can’t get out of it. Family environment includes the fact that parents have the primary influence on their children’s lives. For instance, “if children see drugs and alcohol in their household growing up, they will feel a sense of neglect and will grow up to be broken people and won’t fit societal norms”. In addition, financial problems, such as job loss, are more severe among low-income households, but a fraction of middle-class Americans are also at risk. “Job loss can happen to anyone at anytime for any reason”. The lack of connection that people could feel is “by far the biggest reason people suffer in poverty and homelessness”. When the tough times hit, people need someone there for them and when they don’t have someone, it makes it harder for them to get back from their low points. After this, I then went to research what percent of people that live in poverty come from working families.
In my next source,“Child Poverty.” NCCP | Child Poverty, I found that 43% of children live in low income families; that’s about 31,820,000 children in the United States. Living in low income contributes to people’s mental and physical health, usually in a negative way. Also, in the article, it says, “Low wages and unstable employment [leave families] struggling to make ends meet”. In this direct quote, it shows that most of the time, low wages are what cause families to go into poverty, it isn’t their fault that they get there. Being paid very poorly is what causes families to get that way and it is very difficult to come out of that. Some people living in poverty are living comfortably, but they are still technically below the poverty line for their income and the amount of people that live in their household. Statistics show that it isn’t easy to come back from that.
In my final source, “Transitions into & out of Poverty in the United States.”, it shows that the more time people spend in poverty, the harder it is for them to get out of it.

For instance, the data shows that you have a 56% chance of getting out of poverty if you have been in it for a year or less; there’s only a 13% chance of getting out of poverty if you have lived in it for 7+ years. Although there is an abundant amount of poverty in the United States, some of that is taking place in working families. There is approximately 46.2 million people living in poverty and 10.5 million people are working families; that’s 23%. As stated previously, people only end up in poverty because they have a loss of income or a drastic change that has occurred to them. According to the article, “Between 9 and 14 percent adult transitions [into poverty] begin with no loss of income, but an increase in financial needs brought by an increase in family size. Higher earnings account for 22% of all transitions out of

poverty”.
Not everyone that ends up in poverty is there because they don’t work for it; many families that are in poverty work very hard to try to get out of it but cannot because, due to their family size and income, they are still well below the poverty line. Going off of personal experience and factual evidence, not everybody ends up in poverty because of something they have done or the choices they have made. In this research, I have learned that many children are in poverty and it is very difficult for their families to get out of it. People that end in poverty don’t get there due to their decisions throughout life, some people have grown up that way and then it got passed on to them and they didn’t know anything other than poverty so their children have grown up wondering when their next meal will be or are too afraid to ask for clothes because they are scared they’ll make their parents feel bad if they don’t have enough money. Poverty doesn’t only affect the physical health, but the mental health too. Many people don’t see that; they only see the part where children are starving and need the food but what about the children that need the mental health care too? After doing my research, I realized that people in poverty need not only physical help, but mental help too. In addition, most people only focus on the children in poverty, not the entire family. For instance, if you’re 16+ years old, living in poverty, you won’t be recognized as much as a child that is 2 or 3 years old; people don’t focus on the older children or adults. It affects everybody in poverty not just the young children. Some teenagers are dropouts because they are trying to support their family, they should be noticed too. Most adults in poverty are working, trying to gain the money to get out of poverty, they should also be noticed. It doesn’t only affect the children.
Before doing my research, I had no idea how unnoticed people went. When I started to do my research and looked up poverty in working families, it mainly came up with children as a result. In addition, the articles mentioned the how often it affects children, and in what ways children are affected. Also, while doing research, I didn’t see anything about how it affects teenagers ages 16-17, but I saw adults. Poverty rates seem to skip right over the 16-17 year olds and go straight to 18 year olds. After doing my research, I noticed that that needs to change. Every age group in poverty needs to be noticed, not just the young children and adults because they aren’t the only ones affected by poverty. Also, based on my research, I think that working households should get more support than those not working because they are making an effort to get out of poverty but they aren’t able to.
In conclusion, my research was somewhat shocking but not shocking as well. It was shocking to see that teens weren’t mentioned as much as children and adults but it wasn’t shocking to see the amount of people trying to get themselves out of poverty. Overall, people are trying to work their way out of poverty, but most people fail due to low wages and/or a drastic change in their lives. Therefore, I found out why people end up in poverty and how many people actually get out of it.