Poverty in the United States is one of many difficult problems handled today. In 2010, 15.1% of the American population was living below the poverty threshold. But, how did the government calculate the poverty rate? The United States government uses the Orshansky poverty thresholds, which uses family budgets to determine if the family is above or below the poverty threshold. The current United States poverty measure is an absolute, headcount measure using family income as its scale of resources. However, many would agree that the poverty measure is flawed and that the poverty measure overstates how many people are really in poverty. This is a problem because resources government programs uses to help the poor can unevenly distribute. Therefore, I would like to propose a different poverty measure. In this paper, I would like to argue for a poverty intensity measure that is relative, with earnings capacity as the scale of resources and counts the household as the unit of analysis. First, I will discuss more about the flawed U.S. poverty measure; second, I will explain the four components necessary for poverty measures; third, I will make my proposal against the current measure and conclude about the two poverty measures.
The best way to describe what happened to Orshansky’s measure is that it was “a fish out of water”. Orshansky’s measure was originally meant to be used for research purposes, not for policy making. The basis of her measure originates from her experience from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). She used food consumption and family income defined by food budgets to decide how much a family would need in order to live, which intuitively would make sense seeing how food consumption will never disappear. Using th...
... middle of paper ...
...on, to measure poverty in the United States, the measure requires four components: the scale of resources, the unit of analysis, the poverty threshold, and the depth of poverty. The current U.S. measure has all these components but the problem is that it is too strict and does not explain much about the situation in the U.S. My proposal is more flexible explaining why the poor are poor because it is sensitive to the times and cultures of the society, accounts for the majority of available resources to the poor, and shows where they are in the poverty spectrum.
Works Cited
Brady, David. Rich Democracies, Poor People: How Politics Explain Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 26. Print.
Horner, Stephen, and Frank Slesnick. "The Valuation of Earning Capacity: Definition, Measurement and Evidence." Journal of Forensic Economics. 12.1 (1999): 15. Print.
David K. Shipler in his essay At the Edge of Poverty talks about the forgotten America. He tries to make the readers feel how hard is to live at the edge of poverty in America. Shipler states “Poverty, then, does not lend itself to easy definition” (252). He lays emphasis on the fact that there is no single universal definition of poverty. In fact poverty is a widespread concept with different dimensions; every person, country or culture has its own definition for poverty and its own definition of a comfortable life.
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
...th what little they have, however; why is it left to the poor to have to suffer the consequences of these political choices. The persistence of extreme poverty and social ills speak to a situation that bears for a different approach. It is clear that capitalism and free market solutions cannot spread wealth as advocated. American governments have shown their reluctance to admit this discrepancy through the strategic creations of welfare policies and welfare reform coupled with placing blame upon the citizens who possess little power to change market decisions that govern and effect their lives.
The most widely used poverty measures of Foster-Greer- Thorbecke (FGT) do not show when poverty might be eliminated. But, in this section we will try to answer for the question how long are they going to stay in poverty? following Morduch, (1998) approach which is based on Watts poverty index and FGT class of poverty measures. Morduch shows that a simple linear transformation of the Watts index gives it cardinal properties that can be useful as well.
Undisputedly poverty has been one of the major persistent social problems in the United States for hundreds of years. Poverty does not discriminate against Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, homosexuals, heterosexuals, age, gender, or persons with disabilities. Poverty can strike any population, community, ethnic group, and family. According to the U.S Census Bureau, 43.6 million people were in poverty in 2009 which was an increase from 2008. (Insert citation for website). There are multiple causes of why a family or individual can fall into poverty, which includes but not limited to, disability, unemployment, age, and recessions, as for which we have seen through the 2008 recession and the Great Depression. Throughout this paper I will address poverty as a social problem and its causes. I will also focus on how children and family households headed by single mothers are effected by poverty, and how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families came about to help children and families in poverty.
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
However, the examples tell us that “something is gravely wrong with the way we are measuring poverty in the United States”
Poverty is defined as the circumstances or condition in which an individual or community is lacking the fundamental needs for minimum standard of well-being in life, particularly, as a result of a persistent lack of income. One of the constant barriers in the African American community is poverty. Although there have been many attempts to reduce the level of poverty, it is still an underlining issue in our community. Moreover, one of the leading contributions to poverty was the Great Society.
People in America often suffer from poverty and the treatment that comes with it, throughout their everyday lives. The question raised is why are poor individuals dehumanized by high structures of power? Some people with a higher income feel like they have a choice and a real recourse to justice rather than a lower class individual. They also believe that they are entitled to the world and their opinion matters because of their financial status versus someone who doesn’t have material things. Lessin’s and Deal’s film , Natasha Trethewey’s Memoir, and Bell Hooks’ excerpts, depicts that the poor are often dehumanized and neglected by structures of power, such as the government and media, because of their lack of money and education, however some of structures of power are ignorant to how the lives of poor people really are.
In the 1960s, the government drew a poverty line which determined how the lower class may benefit from government aid. Since t “2008, th...
shining images of prosperity: the fact that democracy empowered the people, but only if they
Imagine yourself living on $14,000 each year under the poverty line. One might have trouble paying for child care, medical assistance, or even feeding their own children. One might struggle in finding a stable job or have a difficult time paying for social security income. The following paper will discuss, how welfare and poverty have affected the United States, what type of people are affected in the process, and how one can help provide cash payments for needy families who are under the given poverty line.
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an
Poverty is an issue dealt with throughout the world, but we are not all aware of its conditions. Poverty is a very serious problem around the world. Poverty is defined as the equality of poorness and impoverishment -- (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions). A question to ask ourselves is: “Should poverty be defined strictly in terms of monetary income, as opposed to some qualitative formula which takes into consideration styles of life as well as material possessions?” (Sheppard 13) Because there are so many different ways we can express the term poverty, maybe there should be a certain way we can determine poverty worldwide?