1

Lane Benevedes
Mrs.Connelly
11-14-16
English 1

PovertyPoverty is not something that every person will encounter in their lifetime. This is a great
thing because those that do experience it have a very hard life and most times it is hard to come
out of. The definition of poverty is the state of being extremely poor. In America, the poverty
level is considered $20,000 a year if you have at least three people living in one household. The
level ranges depending on how many people live in one household. According to the U.S census
bureau, in 2015 there was 43.1 million people living in poverty in America and is still increasing
this year. On a more general measure, almost half the world is living in poverty. That is three
billion people living on $2.50 a day, at least 80% of the world's population lives on less than ten
dollars a day. Poverty is an ongoing battle that may never end.
In America alone poverty has taken its toll on many people. In January of 2015 there
were 564,708 people were homeless on any given night, 206,286 were families,358,422 were
individuals, and about 15% are considered chronically homeless which is 83,170. Those number
are not counting the families that are struggling on a daily basis to make ends meet. How can
America have so much poverty? It can stem from a multitude of problems: drugs, alcohol,
addictions, some are born into poverty, some may even choose to. Bad business deals, the list can
go on and on. Since America is a capitalist country, business and jobs are based off of scarcity or
the need for a specific thing. Huge corporations want to profit the most, so wages are put at the
lowest they can legally go. American people as a whole tend to not like the low wages that are

set forth so, then the immigrants who are desperately looking for a income take the opportunity
and the American loses a job due to dissatisfaction. Now take that little scenario and put into
millions of people situations. The bureau Labor of statistics calculates that 157,833,000 are
jobless or in other word not employed which may put them at the poverty line. Some people are
born in tougher areas where the only way to survive is fight. People who are raised in that
environment are not expected to do much when they get older. It's almost like a disease, it can
just spread through anything and anyone. Even with all the government aids like: affirmative
action, medicaid, food stamps,WIC, income support systems,etc we still have a staggering
amount of poverty in the U.S.
The reason I chose to write about poverty is because here in the central valley we are
surrounded by it even though our agriculture economy is booming. One in six people are living
in poverty in fresno county. The median income fell from 49,479 to 42,807. It increased by 16%
as well ad food stamps usage went up 18%. Fresno is the poorest metro city in California for the
second year in a row. Experts say it's due to the indiversity of jobs because of how ag-heavy it
is.Yes sometimes it is harder to overcome the situations that they are in but even then there is still
opportunities to do well in free public schools to then transfer to college somewhere else and use
financial aid or take on small jobs here and there. Some of the wealthiest came from the bottom
of society and now are multi-millionaires. Poverty can be taken in different ways, either it can
consume you and take away everything or use it to give you hope to overcome it.

My Research plan consisted of statistics of poverty from the Census Bureau and different
websites about poverty. To further better my research paper I could have used personal
interviews with people and used their experiences. I could have better used more detailed data
based in the local area.

Revision Plan
My peer advised that I go back and put more of my own input into the paper. He also
advised that I fix my citations since they are not the correct form in which they are in. He also
said that I should put a quote in from a book that can give another input.
To accomplish this I am going to reread my research paper and try to use my opinion in
the best way. For my quotes i am going to go to the library database and try to find the same
evidence i got from google. For the quote I am going to use a quote from sherman Alexie's book,
The Absolutely

True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

Works cited
https://aspe.hhs.gov//
www.google.com/#q=how+many+americans+live+in+poverty poverty-guideli
https://www.google.com/#q=how+many+people+worldwide+live+in+poverty
(Brazilian National Standards)
References JIANG, Y; et al. Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children 12 through 17 Years, 2013. Fact
Sheet. National Center for Children in Poverty. Jan. 1, 2015.

DALAKER, J; BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, W. Poverty in the United States: 2000. Consumer Income. Current
Population Reports. Sept. 1, 200
Jiang Y, Ekono M, Skinner C, National Center for Children in P. Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children
under 6 Years, 2013. Fact Sheet. National Center For Children In Poverty [serial online]. January 1, 2015;Available
from: ERIC, Ipswich, MA. Accessed December 5, 2016.