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Poverty in the us assignment
Poverty in the us and its causes
Summarize poverty in america
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Poverty in the us assignment
Poverty in the us and its causes
Summarize poverty in america
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Recommended: Poverty in the us assignment
The charge about the old days of the American economy—the nineteenth century, the “Gilded Age,” the era of the “robber barons”—was that it was always beset by a cycle of boom and bust. Whatever nice runs of expansion and opportunity that did come, they always seemed to be coupled with a pretty cataclysmic depression right around the corner. Boom and bust, boom and bust—this was the necessary pattern of the American economy in its primitive state. In the US, in the modern era, all this was smoothed out.
Ehrenreich discusses poverty in the United States and more specifically the “culture of poverty”. Ehrenreich shows the effect of Michael Harringtons’s book “The Other America” and how it shaped the conservative view of poverty. After Harrington’s book, poverty was seen as personal issue not a social issue. The book gave reasoning for sepperating us from them, poor from rich, or educated from non-educated. Many governing politicians used this book to form there view of poverty and to see it as a problem with the person, not a problem with economics or wealth distribution.
The majority of the population in America was below the poverty line, unable to afford anything except for the absolute bare minimum. As of 1929, 32% of American families were earning between $2,000 and $5,000 while only 2% were earning over $10,000 a year. This extreme gap between the rich and the poor was a result of business owners not increasing wages even when profits were increasing. A boat ad produced in 1930 further emphasizes the wage gap. Advertised as “affordable” these boats are still too expensive for the average American (Document 8).
Kaitlyn Johnson English, 008 September 29, 2015 Inequality Inequality has been a major problem all over the world. Not just with race or gender, but now ones' income puts them aside from others. and they are catorgarized. Gary S. Becker, a Noble laurete in economics, and Kevin M. Murphy, a professor at the University of Chicago and a recipient of a 2005 MacCrthur "genius" fellowship, believe that a higher education equals higher income. Paul Krugmam, a teacher of economics at Princeton and the city University of New York, uses people who have had an impact on America.
This chapter also includes many statistics that are very interesting to someones knowledge. One will also learn that the shopping habits people have and where they shop determines if they are well off. In the story about Johnny and his habits of life, one will learn that he is not considered a “bespoke” because he does not spend the money on customized suits. It is proven that people will buy certain pieces of clothing or a pair of shoes just to have the logo on it. One will also learn that most Americans in this generation will never become wealthy because they are wasteful.
Without money, they cannot afford shelter, food, or any other basic human needs. America’s capitalist society in which the basic goal is “to turn money into more money” is what brings on this money-centered lifestyle Americans must live (Johnson 42). The goal of creating more money means that goods must cost more than it takes to make them turn a profit. By extension, this means that the wages of the workers must be lower than what the product is being sold for. Thus, companies push to increase worker productivity and cheap labor to produce more products while spending less.
The poverty line in 1929 was considered to be an annual income of at least $2000. Most people,at the beginning of 1929, were making that and living happily. But, according to Frederick Lewis Allen’s, The Big Change, the US distribution of income was so uneven that 60% of the population was living in poverty. (Doc. 9). With over half of the country living in poverty, businesses had to lower prices and that caused the businesses to lose money and lay off workers, leading to even more impoverished families.
There were two different views on how to help the poor. There were those who believed that the American citizens should help and those who believed the government should help the poor. In the 1931 advertisement, “Of Course We Can Do It”, it states that the people are the ones who will help the poor. Hardworking people should generously give where they can to help the less fortunate. As stated in the advertisement, they emphasize the importance of the American citizen helping the poor: “That means you--and you--and Y O U!--every one of us who is lucky enough to have a job.”
Industrial production dropped by half, breadlines, soup kitchens, and the homeless shelters became popular in America’s town and cities. In Document six, it explains how consumers have to reduce purchases and cut back on spending habits and how farmers struggled not being able to afford to harvest their crops( William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932, 1958). Also in Document seven, and eight it states that, people and families have to stretch and makes ends meet on what they have and also finding a way to make things cheaper (Paul Blanshard, “How to Live on Forty-six Cents a Day,” The Nation, 1929/ Fortune, February
President Thomas Jefferson firmly believed in the ability of the people of America to elect congressmen for guidance of the republic of America. He, also, felt that the central government should be sparing or economical with regard to money. In order to be frugal, he reduced the size of America’s army and navy to almost nothing. He, also, ended internal taxes and worked on paying off the federal debt.
Apparel production in America became expensive to produce or buy where the cost of clothing increased. In document 1, the advertisement for children's jackets were 85 cents to a $1.50 in the early 1900’s. Nowadays jackets are anywhere from $30 to $1000’s of dollars. Prices of clothing or other goods was not the only thing that changed through out of the century, but advertisements like the 1916 advertisement of the colt revolver that promotes to buy guns to use for safety. Advertisements for promoting guns for safety are hardly advertise in papers unless it’s in a hunting shop catalog todays.
More importantly, Galbraith holds a different view on the duty and ability to aid from Carnegie. Carnegie supports policies which “induce the rich man to attend to the administration of wealth during his life, which is the end that society should always have the view” (Carnegie 490). He encourages rich people to distribute his wealth to help the poor during their lifetimes, which shows that it is the rich’s responsibility to administrate wealth in a society. More than duty, Carnegie believes that only the rich has the ability to efficiently administrate wealth. He condemns the way of distributing wealth after the rich man is dead since it is not efficient in that “it requires the exercise of not less ability than that which acquired the wealth
The book that influenced the literature of the 1950s, The Organization Man: The Book that Defined a Generation, by William H. Whyte synthesizes the social mores because he saw the mores of the people in the 1950’s were spent on very money-oriented and consumeristic items. Whyte demonstrates his opinion with a quote, “The same man who will quote from Benjamin Franklin on thrift for the house organ would be horrified if consumers took these maxims to heart and started putting more money into savings and less into installment purchases.” This quote stated by Whyte warns the people of the 1950s that they should use their money on conventional and beneficial goods that could help you in life so the people would be prepared for real world problems.
David Ricardo’s work “On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” written in 1817 is the example of classical writings about economics. The point Ricardo makes in Chapter 7 “On Foreign Trade” is generally that trade is beneficial and a basis for trade is comparative advantage (1817). The essay states that comparative advantage can be a reason for international trade; however there are still problems with its implication in practice. To prove that this paper will first explain Ricardo’s comparative advantage theory. Second, it will provide an example of Kazakhstan and Russia for more explanation.
More than three billion people, nearly half of the world’s population, has an income of less than $2.50 a day. In addition, more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty their income is $1.25 a day. Additionally, this mind-blowing statistic stress the fact that consumer behavior may be the main reason behind poverty. The first use of consumerism term is in 1944 mutual movement in the USA in 1930s.