Poverty is the worst social problem facing the United States today - Essay Example

POVERTY Due paper Poverty Is the Worst Social Problem Poverty is the worst social problem being faced the United States today. Poverty, in its simplest terms, can be described as the lack of resources. Ellis-Christensen (n.d.) states, “Poverty may be defined by income only”. Poverty is an economic problem, which adversely affects the lives of people living in any specific part of the world. Some studies show that almost 925 million all over the world do not have access to food. Asia and the pacific is the region where nearly 580 million people live in a very poor condition having no access to quality food.

In the United States of America, Census Bureau found a significant increase in the rate of poverty. “The report said the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line last year, 15.1 percent, was the highest level since 1993” (Tavernise, 2011). In the United States of America, people usually face three major categories of poverty, which include extreme poverty, relative poverty, and moderate poverty. If we talk about extreme poverty, we can say that people in the condition of extreme poverty are the poorest people living in any part of the world who earn less than or equal to 1 dollar per day.

On the other hand, people in moderate poverty are somewhat in better condition. Harrack (2010) states, “People in moderate poverty generally have access to the basic necessities of life, but they do not have much if any disposable income beyond that”. The U.S. sociologists refer social class to economic position or social status of a person. The economic position indicates the social category of a person. Those people who are stable financially lie into the category of privileged social class whereas people having no proper source of income lie into the category of deprived or poor social class.

Shah (2011) states, “Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society”. The deprived or poor social class is the one, which is adversely affected by poverty. Such people do not get proper jobs, which can earn them high amounts of money. It is their poor condition of life, which makes them use illegal ways, such as, drug trafficking and crimes to earn money.The issue of poverty does not seem to be overcome in near future. Poverty existed in the past, still exists due to uneven economic graphs, and is likely to increase in future due to predicted recession.

One of the major changes in society due to poverty is the increase in the graph of child labor. It is a fact that poverty drives parents to make their children work. Unstable financial position of parents and less education contribute to the increase in the graph of child labor. In the United States of America, the number of people living below the official line of poverty is increasing every year and the dilemma is that no effort is being successful in bringing a decrease in the level of poverty.

Provision of low cost education is the only step, which can bring real improvement in the lives of people but education has become so much expensive that poor people cannot manage to provide proper education to their children. It is the responsibility of the government to take considerable steps to overcome the issue of poverty by providing low cost and high quality education to every child regardless of his/her social or financial status.ReferencesEllis-Christensen, T. (n.d.). What is Poverty?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-poverty.

htmHarack, B. (2010). How do we define poverty?. Retrieved from http://www.visionofearth.org/news/how-do-we-define-poverty/Shah, A. (2011). Causes of Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-povertyTavernise, S. (2011). Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all