ECON 1020 Jessica Speaks

Poverty in America

We fought a war on poverty and poverty won. Ronald Reagan. The article, Poverty in America: Why Cant We End It? posted in the New York Times Sunday Review, stated that over 11% of the population is in poverty. In the past couple of years, we have kept 40 million people out of poverty by pushing programs such as food stamps, social security, low-income housing, etc. The article quotes, To say that poverty won is like saying the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts failed because there is still pollution. I believe that poverty won, and that it will always win. Although we have programs that improve the rate of poverty, it will always exist. We can say increase minimum wage, or increase income for low-income jobs, but that will put us in the same position. If we increase minimum rage, the cost of living will also increase. The costs of food and housing will increase, so essentially, you will still be making minimum wage, and still be in the poverty range. If we increase the income for low-waged jobs, the high paying jobs will also have to increase their income. Although I believe poverty can never officially be zeroed out, I believe there are ways to minimize it within the government, and societys choices. Government programs have slightly diminished the percentage of poverty, but it is still higher than Canadas poverty rate. The main difference between Canada and the U.S. is that Canada has more government spending. Although the U.S. is in extreme debt, I believe if the government takes on more responsibilities, it will lower the poverty rate. In Canada, they rely more heavily on sales tax, rather than income tax. This means less money gets taken out of employee paychecks, and in turn, people will have to pay more for sales tax. What this will do is give employees more money from their paycheck so their Annual Income will increase. By forcing sales tax to increase, this will allow people who cannot afford certain items, to not buy those items. The problem with people in poverty today is everyone thinks certain things that were once to be luxuries are not essential. There are thousands of people in poverty that own a car, have cell phones, cable television, etc. When I was first married, we fell under the poverty rate in America. Together, my husband and I made $12,000 a year. We were poor, but yet we didnt know we were poor. We didnt have luxuries such as a car, or cable television. We focused on paying rent and buying food, and we had enough money for that without having government housing or food stamps. What the government needs to do is put more of a limit on the maximum annual income you can have to get government funding. Most people who fall under the poverty level really do not have to be categorized as that. Government has been too lenient about who should get government funding. Luxuries should be luxuries, not essential things. Health Care is another thing that Canada is doing right. In Canada, health care is completely government funded. They dont have Obamacare, or any other ridiculous system

that forces people, even low income families, to pay for health care. Even though some concepts are good, I believe overall, Obamacare leads to more people in poverty. Federal taxes that are taken out of paychecks are going to completely free health care to every Canadian citizen. Barrack Obama recently stated that the government is now going to 100% fund cell phones to low-income families. This program really upsets me because cell phones are not essential! If people could once live with something, it is not an essential item. If people are in poverty, and cannot afford to live, how are cell phones supposed to give them their basic needs of survival? It perplexes me that the U.S. Government is forcing people to pay for health care, which is putting more people into poverty because most people cannot afford the monthly cost and deductibles, but yet they will supply poor people with phones. The article states, Race and gender play an enormous part in determining povertys continuing course. Minorities are disproportionately poor: around 27 percent of AfricanAmericans, Latinos and American Indians are poor, versus 10 percent of whites. It is not the skin color or race that puts you in to poverty, it is the decisions you make in life, although it is an unfortunate fact of life that the percentage of people who make these decisions are minorities. John Stuart Mill stated three things to never do that will keep you 90% out of poverty. They are: 1. Dont have a baby out of wedlock. Single mothers are the highest percentage in the list of people in poverty. It is hard for them to find affordable day care, while working at a low-income job that has a flexible schedule. 2. Dont have a baby as a teenager. People say dont have a baby until you are financially ready. Well, no one is ever financially ready, but make sure you are graduated from high school and can live on your own and support yourself. If you cannot live without your parents help, dont have a baby. 3. Graduate High School: People who do not have a High School Diploma make less in jobs than people who do. The sad thing about this world, even if we did all these things, if we perfected the government, and people didnt make poor decisions in life, we would still have poverty somehow or another. The world cannot be a perfect place. Poverty will never end.

Works Cited
Boardman, C. M., Sandomir, A. N., & Sondak, H. (n.d.). Foundations of Business Thought. Comparison of Canadian and American Economies. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Canadian_and_American_economies Edelman, P. (n.d.). Poverty in America: Why can't we end it? The New York Times.