Poverty: Inequality In The United States

Joyce is an eight year old girl that lives in Tanzania, one of the poorest places in the world where there is a high risk for abuse and developing aids. The amount that a man makes is about $6 a year. But if the help of Compassion, Joyce would be able to receive medical care, supplies for school, and most importantly teaching from the Bible. Poverty is an injustice that has been around for forever. Three billion people of the world's population are surviving off of only $2.50 a day. These people live without amenities that most American teenagers take for granted liking clean, running water and electricity. Not having clean water causes many disease like diarrhea. Over million children’s deaths are caused by diarrhea. Data from UNICEF shows that over 20,000 child die because of poverty each day. Much money is raised for developing countries, but every $1 received $25 go to the repayment of the country’s debt. Over the past 20 years,

the progress to increase life expectancy has gone down and infant and child mortality has increased. Poverty is a terrible situation affecting many people but Compassion International is trying to end it through their sponsor a child program.

One of the leading causes of poverty most experts believe is inequality.

Most believe in order to end poverty the issue of inequality must be handled as well. But many other social and political issues must to solve in order to fix inequality. Many people don’t understand that even the wealthiest countries’ poor live in poverty worse than the developing countries. The United States is known as the land of opportunity, but currently is one of the worst places in the world to escape poverty. “Interestingly, the US and UK are the biggest proponents of neoliberal economic ideology, which has often played down concerns about inequality and instead focused more on raising the lot for everyone” (Shah). The middle class of the United States has slowly diminished. “The US for a long time has had the largest gap and inequality between rich and the poor compared to all the other industrialized nations” (Shah). To end inequality there must be an increase in job opportunities and education which will reduce the income difference

gap.

Another cause of poverty that has recently been given into consideration is structural adjustment. “Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are economic policies for developing countries that have been promoted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) since the early 1980s by the provision of loans conditional on the adoption of such policies” (“Structural Adjustment Programmes”). SAPs are used to stabilize a developing country’s economies by lessening the government’s control and making the market more competitive (capitalism). SAPs bring along with them many perks increasing free trade and decreasing government spending. But in some developing countries, SAPs have a negative affect rather than a positive. Since the countries are borrowing money, eventually they have to pay it off. This causes the country to have to increase exports to have money to pay the debt. So now the countries must focus to the debt rather than on health and education. Many studies have shown after countries have received SAPs that the health of the country has gone down tremendously.

Poverty can happen to anyone; it takes its toll on children, adults, and elders. There are almost 30% of children in undeveloped countries that are underweight. Almost half the population of children in the world live in poverty. In the United States in Luzerne County, poverty has increased significantly since 2000. “One of every four children under age 18 in Luzerne County lives in poverty” (Allabaugh). The federal government has determined that a family of four that makes under $23,492 live in poverty. Poverty has a big impact on on a child like affecting them in school. Only a handful of children that live in poverty are likely to finish high school studies show. “Welcome to the World”shows the obstacles faced in each country by living in poverty. The opportunities that babies will have will matter where they are born. In Africa, the infant mortality rate is very high. It is so high because they do not access to proper medical equipment and the people are not medically educated. Pisey is a twelve boy that lives in Cambodia, and his parents are divorced. Pisey’s family has no money, so he picks up trash for money. His father cheated on his mother, and he became infected with aids. Pisey’s newborn sister dies two months after she is borned. But finally at the end, Pisey’s mom gets a job and Pisey is able to go to school.

Poverty has both a long lasting effect on a child mentally and physically. In the 1960s, a man named Walter Mischel came up with the marshmallow test. The test consist of a child sitting in front of a two-way mirror with a marshmallow in front of them. If they can last the ten minutes, they will receive 2 marshmallows. This test can show how the frontal cortex is developing. Research has shown that stress is a major factor that affects the development of the frontal cortex. “One of the most corrosive stressors that humans have invented-- poverty-- has an ample adverse impact on the developing cortex” (Rosenthal). The studies show that children coming from poor backgrounds perform worse on tests that involve the use of the frontal cortex. Recent studies done on African-American nine year old boys show that living poverty affect the length of the boys’ telomeres. “Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes that function as a sort of cap to protect the genetic information when DNA replicates” (Taylor). Research has found that stress causes the telomeres to shorten. The children that they examine seemed to be caused stress by their parents liking their parents treating them badly and not making enough money to support them. From these studies, most scientists conclude that the only way to help a child in poverty is to get them help as soon as possible.

Poverty is a terrible predicament, but there are many organization trying to help like Compassion International. Compassion was started in 1956 by an evangelist named Everett Swanson, but the original name was Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association. The organization first started helping orphans in South Korea. After only five years, the organization was helping 108 orphans. In the beginning, the business was run by family and close family friends. In 1963, the named was changed to Compassion, Incorporated, and two years later Swanson died. In 1966, Rev. Henry L. Harvey becomes president and compassion is currently working in 17 countries. In 1975, Harvey retires and Wally Erickson becomes the third president. In 1993, “More than 180,000 children are sponsored in more than 2,000 project sites in 21 countries” (“History”). In 1996, Compassion creates a web sites, and Compassion is sponsoring half a million children by 2003.

Compassion is a Christian organization started in 1956. They got the named compassion from Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:32. Their statement of faith is very biblically accurate. Their statement of faith is clearly presented on their website, and it consists of six words that they have defined that are very important in the Christian faith. They believe that the bible is God-breathed, that Jesus is God in flesh and He came to earth to die for the sins of everyone, and that the Holy Spirit is in those who believe in Christ. They believe in the Holy Trinity, salvation, and the Resurrection. Compassion also has a bulleted list of 10 things that they commit to do. The first one is the most important. “We commit to honor Jesus Christ in all that we do. The Great Commission is at the heart of our mission statement, and discipleship is at the core of our program” (“Our Commitment to You”). The rest of the commitments deal with what they company promises to do with the children that they help.

The programs that Compassion offers to the children are called core programs. There are 3 major core programs: critical needs, children survival program, and leadership development. Critical needs deals with health needs, educational needs, and disaster relief. Children survival program deals with care about birth. HIV/AIDS is one of the main concerns under the topic of health. “An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004” (Shah). Compassion not only provides the children primary education but offers secondary education. Being educated is one way to escape poverty. After a child’s home has experienced a terrible disaster, Compassion steps to insure that the child has a place to stay and clean water. In the child survival program, people from Compassion help educate the mother in areas like breast-feeding, immunization, and food. Having this education will help lower the high infant mortality rate.

Compassion is a nonprofit organization, but this does not mean that they do not make money. In 2012-2013, Compassion spent over $535,000,000 on the programs that they offer. “In fact, when you give to Compassion this year, 83.6 cents of every dollar you gave was spent on programs that directly benefit the children” (“Financial Integrity”). Compassion was ranked 23rd on Chronicle of Philanthropy 400 List. All this money has allowed Compassion to do some great things like over 1,3500,000 children in the child sponsorship program. Almost half a million children are sponsored in Africa. Children that are in the child sponsorship program have shown great success. They are more likely to stay in school, more likely to be employed, and more likely to be a leader in their church or community than unsponsored children. The child sponsorship program most importantly helps the children escape poverty.

Poverty is a big, ugly issue that has been around for so many years, but with organizations like Compassion International who are helping to reduce the number of those suffering from this terrible injustice each day. Poverty is a topic that is overlooked by most people. Especially those who are Christians, God has called His children to help those who are less fortunate or in need of help. Many organizations have the goal of ending poverty and have had great results but this is only scraping the surface of this injustice. If organizations, individuals, churches, and leaders continue with the success that has already been achieve; hopefully, the issue of poverty will progressively lessen.