Poverty and Welfare
DISCUSSION POST
Today, most governments have integrated poverty eradication into their mainstream national policies. Even developed nations such as the United States continue to battle with the epidemic as a considerable population lives below the poverty line. Despite adopting diverse poverty eradication programs and policies in the past, the current outcomes remain below the desired levels. In the future, expanding the U.S. middle-class population should be the cornerstone feature of any effective anti-poverty plan.
The government can focus on its labor markets and the children to reduce the poverty levels in the United States and allow more people to grow into the middle-class population. First, the government may implement policies that increase the wages and income of the poor. As tabulated by Hurst (2019), people with the lowest incomes spend the most significant percentages of their earnings on basic needs such as housing, food, transportation, and utilities. With higher incomes, the poor will be able to cater for their basic needs while saving and investing. Second, the government ought to focus on children from low-income families by improving their schools, housing, healthcare, and financially aiding them through college. Of all the families that benefit from the current federal assistance programs, 50% have children under 18 years of age (Hurst, 2019). Rather than fixating on helping the adult poor, changing strategy to focus on children would help eradicate poverty for future generations. With higher incomes, healthy, and well-educated children, more poor people will be able to grow into the middle-class population.
Increasing the middle-class population will help eradicate poverty in the United States. By providing better amenities for children in low-income neighborhoods and improving U.S labor markets, the opportunities for poor people to get out of poverty will increase. However, these are initiatives that require collaboration between both the government and the U.S. public.
QUESTION
Hurst (2019) concludes Chapter 3 by opining that poverty is resultant from a capitalist economic system. Do you think that poverty is inevitable for capitalist systems?