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War on poverty essay
War on poverty essay
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In David Shipler’s book “The Working Poor: Invisible in America” starts out describing what Earned Income Tax Credit is it’s a program to help people in poverty who are either liberals and conservatives. Providing a significant source of income once a year to help your down payments on a car, house, bills, debt, or other taxes. It seems to be a good program, but some government businesses sometimes mislead their claims and denying others access to certain benefits or rights. Certain people who have a hard time doing their taxes seek help, but tax prepares may charge high interest rates and fees to just use their services. For example, Evon Johnson who had a tax charge from the IRS for over $2,072.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Louisiana dictator Huey Long, two very powerful people with two very different extremes. Long and Brownback both have similar and dissimilar ideas when it comes to their ideology, policies-principles and their constituents reactions. From “Every Man a King” to “Let's create a legal system that can work.” both governors change lives. Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is an American politician currently serving as Governor of Kansas.
As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.
Prior to reading these two articles, I had never heard of Dorothy Allison. After reading them, I do not think I will forget her. “A Question of Class” and “Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Know” grabbed my attention, but I could relate to “A Question of Class” more. Thankfully, I did not live in poverty the first eighteen years of my life like Dorothy Allison did. Also, I never experienced any kind of sexual abuse.
The Cloward-Piven Strategy or the “Crisis Strategy” was implemented, ultimately to accelerate or hasten the fall of capitalism within the United States government. The overall method of the strategy was to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading government bureaucracy with impossible demands. An overload of demands would eventually push the capitalistic society into a depression, an economic collapse. It was first proposed in 1966 by sociologist teachers at Columbia University, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. It was after the event of the 1965 riots, congregated in the black district, in Los Angeles California that the Cloward-Piven Strategy emerged.
Generational Poverty Poverty has been around for numerous years. Poverty can be a generational problem if people let it. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and David Joy’s “Digging in the trash” both show that families in poverty do not have it easy, the children will live in poverty unless something is done, and people either find a way of escape or stand up against it. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin shows how the lack of monetary resources affects many generations.
Towards the end of Kennedy’s presidency and the beginning of Johnson’s presidency, the poverty rate was at 19 percent. In his State of the Union address, Johnson officially declared a war on poverty, clearly outlining what needed to be done in order to “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it [poverty]” (Johnson, “First State of the Union Address”). However, efforts to battle poverty and economic instability did not just start with Johnson as poverty has been a national issue for decades. For example, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, which was during the Great Depression, he introduced the New Deal and created Social Security, minimum wage, and Keynesian economic theory, the idea that “government spending would boost economic growth” (Amadeo, “FDR’s Economic Policies”). During Kennedy’s presidential term, he introduced tax cuts in his plan and “proposed in 1963 to cut income taxes from a range of 20-91% to 14-65%.
In the article “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” Barbara Ehrenreich gives her view in poverty and explains why she think Michael Harington’s book “The Other American” gives a wrong view on poverty. She explained that Harrington believes that the poor thought and felt differently and what divides the poor was their different “culture of poverty.” Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.”
Poverty; a word that is commonly used so often when it comes to individuals being a low classed, low income, American citizen who struggle to find success and an efficient job that pays well. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s article It Is Expensive to Be Poor, published in the online news article company The Atlantic, on January 13,2014, she argues that those who are struggling to support their own family or find an efficient well paying job are obtaining no support from the self-centered government. Ehrenreich also tries to inform the readers that those who are in poverty are treated unfairly and unjust. Through Ehrenreich’s argumentative article, she tries to persuade the readers through reasoning, credible personal background and history, as well as emotional appeals.
Poverty has become a big societal problem that it has become a major topic in political debates. Politicians have been debating on the best course of action to solving the poverty problem. Former President Lyndon B Johnson understood that poverty was a problem and it needed to be addressed. The Former President Lyndon B. Johnson believed that society has a responsibility for its citizens. He declared War on Poverty in 1964.
Poverty is affecting billions of people around our world and the number is growing with each day. Many people think they can avoid the effects of poverty, but it is something that affects all of our daily lives. Many people see poverty as a person who lacks money, although this is true poverty is caused by many more things than being without money. Just the fact that one in two children live in poverty can help people see clearly the impact it has on our world. Poverty truly does influence the type of care and treatment a person will receive when they need it.
“ We have fought war on poverty and poverty won”, is one of the most famously quotes of Ronald Regan. The meaning behind this quote is that America has been struggling to overcome poverty over years, but as years keeps increasing so do the number of people living poor. The percentage in poverty did decrease in 2000 but today it still affects 15 million people. According to Peter Edelman’s article “ Poverty In America: Why Cant We End It”, there are four reasons why America has not achieved to decrease the number of poverty: Low- wage jobs, households headed by single parent, welfare, and gender/ race. The plan that America has to improve this number of 15 million is by providing food stamps, enacting programs, and social security.
“For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always (Bible Hub).” These are the words of Jesus found in John 12:8 (KJV). Chapter 6, of the textbook “Understanding Social Problems,” by Linda M. Mooney, David Knox, and Caroline Schacht, masterfully leads its readers into what matters as it relates to economic inequality, wealth, and poverty. This paper will briefly summarize this chapter.
They say that we as humans learn from our parents and follow in our parents footsteps. Poverty is like a revolving door in many American families. If we grow up only knowing poverty and the struggles that it brings in our everyday life then we almost get accustom to that kind of thinking and life style. As a single mom if you are struggling everyday to provide for your children, certain things that are important, such as the education and supervision of your kids seem to slip through the cracks. Many moms are working late hours and trying to bring in enough income to care for their children that kids are left unattended for long periods of time, which brings up the issue that The New York Times had mentioned about children with single parent
The article talks about poverty within america and the issues and resolutions connected to the economy. In “It is Expensive To Be Poor” Ehrenreich claim is that people in poverty are not in that situation because of self habits but because they simply do not have money at the moment. she explains that anyone