I read the story “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” by the author Suki Kim. This story is about Suki Kim’s life as a young Korean girl with rich girl's habits emigrating to America while facing new found poverty. From birth she was accustomed to the glamour of the princess-lifestyle. Suki Kim must learn how to change her rich girl habits in order survive in Queens, New York. Thus, I feel that Suki Kim’s dramatic change of lifestyle will have a positive effect on her in the long run. In my opinion, spoiled children tend to be ungrateful and unappreciative. Children who get everything handed to them feel entitled and end up not striving as diligently as they should. I think that having to overcome this hardship has made Suki Kim a stronger
and a better person. Suki Kim’s challenges has taught her to be more grateful and appreciative of the items she owns. Her extravagant lifestyle consisted of being driven to school every morning by chauffeurs and being cleaned up after by maids. Suki Kim’s story shows the division between the socio-economic classes. In conclusion, one must face obstacles in order to thrive and achieve excellence.
According to the narrator in the introduction for the video, Faces of Poverty: Living on the breaking point in Reading, PA , Reading is ranked as one of the poorest city in any country that houses a population of 65000 people. As per the introduction, the statistics are already stacked against anybody that is trying to make it out of Reading PA. People in Reading face the same challenges as the rest of America, but their challenges seems to not have any solution, which in turn affects a wide population of its residence. The challenges faced by people in Reading include but are not limited to; lack of jobs, poor infrastructure, lack of flowing funds for building a stronger economy, and lastly, most people in Reading are not learned. This paper is going to look at the problems people in Readings face, their strengths as well as an opinion on what can be done for small towns like Reading to enable them to thrive.
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is a novel that perfectly represents a life lived in poverty. Smith uses childhood in Brooklyn to help build her story. In almost every chapter her main characters face many problem of poverty in early twentieth-century America. The problems that are thrown at the characters often seem unbearable and impossible to overcome. They struggle to break through the problems of the lower class. Though, they always find a way to defeat the unpleasant situations they are in and make something good out of them. The characters’ fight through poverty in A Tree Grow in Brooklyn shows that they have strong mental and physical characteristics. Demonstrating that people may run into tough obstacles in life, but if they persevere it is possible to overcome them. Betty Smith gives a strong voice to the underclass, inspiring them to overcome the struggles of poverty. She allows the reader to see the main characters overcome these problems through education, pride, saving money and persevering in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Having a family of low socioeconomic status inevitably leaves me to reside in a low-income neighborhood which makes it more likely for me to witness the tragedies, adversities and hardships that people go through [not excluding myself]. Being conscious of this kind of environment, and these kinds of events, creates a pressure on me for having the aim to achieve social mobility in order to escape the aforementioned environment so that my own children could witness one less abominable aspect of life. Moreover, my family’s low socioeconomic status does not authorize me the privilege of being raised with the concerted cultivation method that kids of high socioeconomic status are more prone to being raised in. My family did not have the financial resources that granted us access to extra classes or lessons of instrumental classes, swimming practices, karate practices, or any other extracurricular activities that people of high socioeconomic status would be able to afford. This invisible fence that prevents me from these extracurricular activities enables me to having more appreciation towards the hobbies and talents that other people have. Plus, the fact that my family’s low socioeconomic status acts as a barrier from enjoying expensive luxuries in life creates a yearning [in me] to enjoy them later on in my life, in addition to acting as the fuel to my wish of achieving social mobility in anticipation of providing my own children with the luxurious vacations, gadgets, beachhouse, new cars that I could not
Those born into poverty will most likely grow up to be poor once they reach adulthood while the rich kid will grow up to become rich (Garland 130). Many financially stable parents will tend to spend more time and money onto their child 's education while the low-income families struggle to pay for the bills. With no struggle, the middle-class will send off their child to college to get a better education while the low-income family will more than likely not be fortunate enough to send their child to college.
Suki Kim the author of the story “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits”, she discusses her challenges and hardships moving to America. She was born into living this luxurious millionaire lifestyle in South Korea, until one day her world gets turned upside down. Suki Kim along with her dad is forced to move to Queens, New York. Young Suki Kim goes from riches to rags in her story. It starts when Suki Kim witnessed her dad go under bankruptcy. In Korea bankruptcy was punishable by a jail term at the time. This triggered the effect of Suki Kim and her dad coming to America. Suki Kim realized there is major differences in American and Korean culture. In Korean schools, the classrooms are more strict. An example of this is, students are expected
Working class parents aren 't home enough to focus on their children. A lot of times these children have more freedom compared to a higher class family. The type of parenting affects the family, depending on which class they are in, parents want to instill certain skills and traits in their children. In the article review of the book Unequal Childhoods by Annette Lareau, the writers explain the effect different class parents have on their own children. Parents from the middle class want their children to be hardworking and obedient. The middle class children share a trait of entitlement. Parents raise them to take charge and “actively manage interactions”.(Tiger Girls on the Soccer Field) Thus parents get their children involved in certain activities. An example would be sports, many parents want their children to succeed in the job market and hopefully gain a higher up job like them. A parent Malcolm admits he doesn’t want his daughter to be “girly-girl”. He explains “I don 't want her to a be a cheerleader but I want her to prepare to have the option, if she wants to be an executive in a company, that she can play on the turf”.( Tiger Girls on the Soccer Field) Malcolm “believes that sports don 't just steer his seven-year-old daughter toward assertiveness, they actively drive her away from traditionally feminine pursuits”(Tiger Girls on the Soccer Field) The higher class parents instill thoughts of
In today 's society, there is 1 in 7 people living in poverty which is costing Canadian citizens’ money as they are paying for taxes. There are many standpoints in which people examine the ways poverty affect society such as Marx’s conflict theory. Marx’s conflict theory goes over how social stratification being inevitable and how there is a class consciousness within people in the working class. Another way that poverty is scrutinized is by feminization. Feminization is the theory that will be explored throughout this essay. Poverty will be analyzed in this essay to determine the significance of poverty on the society and the implications that are produced.
They are even capable of understanding and dealing with their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Some of the implications of poverty include educational setbacks, issues with social behaviors and hindrances in psychological and physical development. Poverty deprives children of the capabilities needed to survive, develop and prosper in society. Studies have shown that the income status of a household and even the neighborhoods in which they reside can affect the amount of readily available resources needed to sustain a healthy child. This essay will examine the psychological and physical effects of poverty on children.
They believe that they are receiving the short end of the stick and in many ways that is true. Therefore, rebellious attitudes as well as improper coping mechanisms to their problems become very aggressive or destructive. The fundamental relationships someone is put into while they are growing up especially starting at a young age will also be a contributing factor to behavior. If a child sees the adults in their life dealing heavily with poverty and facing tribulations negatively, it then puts a heavy burden on that child’s shoulders, leading to an undesirable behavior of their own. Or, if a child in poverty sees a lower accomplishment level for the adult in their life then it instills the mindset that it is not possible to achieve more. In return, this gives them a “can’t do anything” attitude, which makes them constantly reply with an “I can’t” when a situation proves too difficult. Poorer children also have a greater risk of being victims of abuse which also can lead to possible behavior hitches. In chapter two of “Teaching with Poverty in Mind,” the author states that behavior stems from both genetics and environment (Jensen). However, in this case the behavior that was observed from the children was more apathetic and depressing than other circumstances. This was believed to be so because the children are aware of their less fortunate situation and as a result of that obtain the behaviors that they are displaying. Children of poorer households fail to learn proper responses to various situations and often resort to unfortunate tactics, habitually landing them in
Ka- Ching Ka- Ching the sound of the cash register when it ranged up the purchase of those 250 pants and your walking out the store feeling like a top millionaire. However gas in your stomach has you cramping up, darkness is what you see when you arrive home and boredom is how you feel because there’s no food in the cupboard, light and telephone off. Therefore there’s no one to talk to. However that’s alright because priorities are in order and satisfying material wants are far more important than your basic needs like water, food and light. People are often driven by feelings of material entitlement because they want to live extravagant lifestyles like the lives they see in movies and magazines. In Cottom’s essay "Why do Poor People waste money on luxury goods"? there are certain scenarios where the author illustrates people spending money on useless status symbols to fit in society and gain social status like spending 2500 on luxury handbags and buying expensive designer belts . This goes to show the main reason a person may spend money on luxury handbags and belts is because people in society makes a big deal about it .In this essay I shall claim that we live in society that values too much on material items that can lead to crime, debts and can cause a individual to stray away from God teachings.
Poverty is an outcome of the mode of production and plays a large role in relation to production. Therefore, according to Marx, it is a contributor to the economic base. People who are living at poverty level struggles to meet the living necessities due to capitalist exchange values on productions. What I mean by this that people in poverty cannot afford to buy enough food, clothes, and most importantly a safe home for their kids. This is due to the fact that most people living in poverty are being paid minimum wages that does not meet the exchange values of commodities. People in poverty are the laborers in the capitalist world, they a commodity as well. Using Marx’s theory, people in poverty are the proletariats since they are the actual
My siblings and I grew up in a very low income neighborhood, but my mother makes it her duty to make my siblings and I have a good education and have a conducive environment by working two jobs. So that growing up, we will move from being a working class to being middle class and one day, be at the upper class. My mother did her best so that my siblings and I can have social mobility by give us a good education, so that we can move from intergenerational mobility to intragenerational mobility like Ben Carson the neurosurgeon. Moving forward in life, my mother teaches my siblings and I on the reason why she is investing so much into our education. She said it was because she has tasted poverty before and she can testify that poverty can cause early death. According to Ropers, “being poor not only means economic insecurity, it also wreaks havoc on one’s mental and physical health” (Ropers,
The one thing that stands out the most in my memories from childhood is that I never wanted for material things. My parents divorced when I was ten. Mom remarried shortly after to a prominent Doctor in the community and life was forever changed from that time on. I was often referred to as being spoiled because I had things that my friends did not. The ironic part is that looking back at the situation I did not feel spoiled. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. I longed for what my friends appeared to have; time with their parents. I may have not wanted for material possessions but I did long for the family interaction that everyone else seemed to have. It was not uncommon for my mom to hand me a few hundred dollars on her way out the door with my step-father for a vacation. My friends all thought this great. All I could think about was how much I would have given it all away to have just one family vacation. My first realization came from this and that is the coined phrase “money can not buy love.”
Poverty is an economic condition in which people lack the income to obtain basic needs, like food, water, clothing, and shelter (“Poverty”). Poverty is an ongoing internationally battle that has yet to have been won according to Scott W. Allard, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago poverty affects more the 1 billion people throughout the world. It could affect anyone regardless, of race, sex, and age; but its effect on children is crucial and could affect them throughout their lives. Children are more vulnerable to poverty because they don’t have a real way to provide for themselves, nor can they gain the economic means to break free from poverty at their age. Poverty is linked to negative effects