Poverty In Brevard County

Poverty in Brevard County
My Social Issue
Poverty is a worldwide issue. With emphasis on poverty in third world countries like Africa, Haiti, etc. Citizens of Brevard County tend to overlook how poverty is happening in our own back yards. My social issue is about poverty in Brevard County and I aim to bring awareness to this terrible situation. Poverty as defined by Wikipedia “is general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.” According to “Brevard County Income and Careers,” 12.51% of Brevard County’s population is living in poverty. Seminole County, a neighbor to Brevard has 10.78% of their population living in poverty. As you can see the percent of population in poverty in Brevard

Karl Marx, a ground breaking sociologist, economist, and philosopher, lived from 1818 to 1883. During his lifetime he propounded this epic sociologic perspective, the conflict theory. (McClelland) The conflict theory discusses how the rich and the poor have been fighting ongoing battle for power. The group in control actively defends their advantages. In the 1940s and the 1950s the conflict theory was ignored because sociologist thought it was solely economic. Today, sociologists see that conflict is found between many different groups in society. (Crossman) According to the conflict theory, inequality is the result of those who are wealthy, typically those in the upper one percent, which impose their mode of social order on the rest of the general society. In result, society is constantly competing for limited resources. Groups and individuals with that hold these resources use them to maintain power and social control. The wealthy are the independent variables that hold the power to make decisions and control how society is ran. The lower classes are the dependent variables that have little to no control over how society is structured. Conflict theorists encourage social change. Instead of allowing the “well off” to force social order on everyone else, the general public should fight for social change even at the expense of a possible social revolution. In general, there are groups and individuals

They draw their conclusion from Karl Marx’s view of class and societies. Outside forces prevent groups or individuals from reaching certain goals or ways of living. That outside force is typically the upper class. The upper class have created an exclusive society for themselves that lock in their wealth at the expense of everyone else’s well-being. For example the CEO of Wal Mart, Michael Duke receives a $35 million yearly salary. His general store employees make just above minimum wage. Companies like Wal Mart offer their employees with very little room to grow career wise. This is how the system works when it comes to majority of the large corporations and these companies’ lower class employees. In order to become a CEO like Michael Duke, you will likely have to be born rich. Successful startup companies require a great deal of high profile connection in order to succeed. Millionaire investors do not typically invest in poor people causing many these hard working individuals to continue to live in poverty. This is just one way the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Ivy League, private, and overall prestigious schools cost a fortune. Students at these schools receive a better education and typically find better, higher paying jobs. Students of middle and lower class have to settle for low paying jobs simply because they could not afford to go to a school with great prestige. In