The Pros And Cons Of Poverty

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Recommended: Structural and societal causes of poverty

What is Poverty?
Those who live in poverty live below the poverty threshold. This threshold is determined by the Census Bureau, by number of people living in a household. The poverty guidelines for 2016 put a two person household at $16,020 a year. Anyone living at or below this mark is considered in poverty and anyone making less than 200% of that is near poor.
Right now in the U.S. there are approximately 43.7 million people living below the poverty line. This is roughly 13.5 percent of the entire nation that can barely afford to live on a day to day basis. But why are these numbers so high? I believe there could be a number of factors that stem from economical and socioeconomical changes over the past few decades.
Single Parent Struggle …show more content…

This has led to an increase in single income households supporting one or more children. This means the wages don’t go as far and it is harder to make ends meet while supporting children on one income. According to the CDC in 1980 only 18.4 percent of births were unmarried women compared to 2014 where that number rose to 40.2 percent. That is over a 20 percent increase, what’s more troubling is in the 1996 welfare reform laws were put in place to ensure any mother under the age of 18 who had a child but did not love with an adult would not be eligible for benefits. While I doubt there is a very large percentage of single mothers under 18 living on their own this is still quite alarming. This caveat alone could potentially be taking help from those who need it the

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