Nature of American Poverty
Poverty in America seems to be unreal due to the country’s vast resources and opportunities. America is known to be rich as a nation, and also its citizens make the list of the wealthiest people in the world. However, poor people also exist in the country, which creates a gap between the citizens of the country. This is because poverty depends on people’s work. This paper will give the characteristics of poverty in America.
Ben Franklin’s quotation says that God helps those who help themselves (Harrington, np). He meant that God helps the people who work hard but abandons the lazy. This encourages people to work hard because they have the blessings of God by doing so. It also warns people that if they do not work, they will not have anything from God. This shows that God multiplies what you have already achieved by your efforts. I agree with his idea because it encourages people to the best of their efforts to produce something for their livelihood. It also improves the livelihood of the people since there are a lot of resources to be exploited, and for that reason, no one should depend on the other for their livelihood.
One of the characteristics of the composition of the poor is that the poor children make up a third of the population, while about two-thirds of the poverty population are people below 35 years. This shows that many people above 35 years are less likely to be poor. Another characteristic is that women who are above 18 years make up three-fifths of the population of poor people. This indicates that men who are poor makeup two-fifth of the poverty population.
Some people might not have been able to acquire a high school diploma. One reason is poverty because their families might not have been able to raise the school fees for them to study. These people also may not have parents because of death or maybe being abandoned. The young children could not raise their fees to pay for their high school diploma. Another reason is because of dropping out of school. In education, it is rare to have a full transition from primary to high school. This is because many of the adults fall into traps of drug abuse or peer pressure. A large percentage of people fall into the poor population because of a lack of employment. This is because many jobs require academic qualifications; hence they are less disadvantaged.