According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of Americans living below the poverty line increased by 1 percentage point, to 11.4%. In America today poverty is a major problem the worlds face, and I care deeply about this topic because it is one of the major global problems most countries in the world face. It’s a global issue that affects many people and causes others too, it is very commonly seen, and at one point in my life at an early age, I was told stories about how my father was absent in my life due to an issue, and my mother having to live with relatives, sleeping in their couches with a 1-year-old child trying to find a job but not being able to due to me being so young and in a relatively new country. To fix the problem of poverty, the government, and the community need to get together and share funding for those suffering, increase the accessibility of affordable housing and food, and increase the minimum wage.
The first reason why the government and the community need to get together and share funding towards those suffering is that it can allow those to be provided some sort of help such as tax credits or financial aid, as taxes are painful especially now that Covid has brought major economic problem for many. For example, research shows that “The senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he wouldn’t support the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda, most likely ending the bill. Without the enhanced credit, nearly 10 million children are at risk of falling back below the poverty line or slipping even deeper into poverty, according to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.” (Reinicke, Carmen). This matters because if the government provides aid to those in poverty as a result, child poverty would decrease dramatically. If the government decides to not provide some type of aid to families such as no extension of the enhanced child tax credit, it can cause up to 10 million children to go into poverty, which is the reverse of fixing the problem. Therefore, the US government needs to help aid those in poverty as it can make a major change in our society.
The second reason is to increase the accessibility of affordable housing and food. This problem can be solved by the government. If the government decides to make housing and food cheaper, it can allow many families to be able to afford food and housing. According to studies on how housing cost and food accessibility are major contributions to poverty by housingmatters.urban, “There is an important connection between housing stability and food access. Families experiencing financial hardship may have little money left for food after paying their rent or mortgage, face eviction or homelessness (having nowhere to safely store or prepare healthy food), or live in disinvested neighborhoods where access to healthy, affordable food is less likely.” This demonstrates that many families who struggle financially typically face the problem of not having enough money for food as they spend it on mortgages, and rent; if the government increases the accessibility of affordable housing and food this would most likely decrease the poverty rates by allowing many families who struggle to buy food after paying their mortgages and rent, is the main cause in families to experience poverty. Furthermore, it can allow those less fortunate to not have to worry about being homeless and providing food to their families; therefore, it can help decrease homelessness and world hunger as it all ties in with poverty.
In addition, the last reason is that the government should increase the minimum wage. Increasing the minimum wage for workers who make minimum wage which is 14-15 dollars isn’t enough for one to live especially now that many are unemployed due to covid, therefore the minimum wage should be increased. For example, research from the Congressional Budget Office shows that “How would increasing the minimum wage affect the number of people in poverty? By boosting the income of low-wage workers with jobs, a higher minimum wage would lift some families’ income above the poverty threshold and thereby reduce the number of people in poverty. But low-wage workers who lost employment would see their earnings decrease, and in some cases, their family income would fall below the poverty threshold. The first effect would tend to be larger than the second, so the number of people in poverty would generally fall.” (cbo.gov). This shows how increasing the minimum wage can influence poverty in families, the minimum wage increases many families’ income would be above the threshold; as a result, poverty decreases in families, and many families can come out of the poverty line and be able to contribute society uplifting everyone and benefiting society. Therefore, it is important to increase the minimum wage as many of those families working jobs that pay less than minimum wage is having to deal with living in poverty.
Now some people may argue that poverty isn’t their problem and why should they worry about it if it doesn’t affect them. They believe this because many see those in poverty as lazy and waste as they don’t contribute to the world’s economy. However, they are wrong because poverty affects many people in the world as it’s one major problem society faces, it also creates other problems like world hunger, homelessness, etc. Also, if those in poverty were given a better opportunity, they would be able to provide more to society and the economy than the wealthy. According to the Center for American Progress Action, “America’s economic strength is based on a strong middle class with purchasing power to fuel our economy and workforce contributions to increase our economic growth and productivity. The increasing number of Americans who slip from the middle class into poverty places downward pressure on our nation’s revenues due to the impact of lower earnings”. Additionally, long periods of poverty produce downward effects on human-capital development by limiting access to education and training and proper health care. As a result, when individuals who have experienced long periods of poverty enter the workforce, their contributions may be restricted or minimal, while others may not enter the workforce at all. The result is low productivity for millions of under-skilled Americans alongside a significant reduction in the purchasing power and savings among poor individuals. This results in lower demand from a large segment of our population and fewer investments to expand and grow the economy.” (Brown, Desmond). This proves that many of those claims about those in poverty will not contribute to society even if they are assisted and aided when they are wrong as it’s proven that those pay more taxes than those who are wealthy.
The problem of poverty is important. People, society, and others are impacted when it affects those even though poverty is a great issue and affects many whether it be those in the streets, or those working hard just to earn the poverty threshold; therefore, reasons 1; the government, and the community need to get together and share funding for those suffering, reason 2; increase the accessibility of affordable housing and food, and finally reason 3; increase the minimum wage. In which are suggestions to fix the problem of poverty, the government, and the community need to get together and share funding towards those suffering, make housing and food cheaper, and increase the minimum wage. If society fixes the problem of poverty, then most of the world’s problems will be fixed, as poverty contributes to many other problems.
Works Cited
Lu, Joanne. “Tax the Ultrarich to Solve Poverty? Easier Said than Done.” NPR,
NPR, 25 Jan. 2019,
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/01/25/688345610/tax-the-ultra-rich-to-solve-poverty-easier-said-than-done.
Reinicke, Carmen. “10 million Children Will Fall Back into Poverty When the
Enhanced Child Tax Credit Ends.” CNBC – 10 million Children Will Fall Back
into Poverty When the Enhanced Child Tax Credit Ends, 20 Dec. 2021,
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/child-tax-credit-ending-will-push-10-
million-kids-back-into-poverty-.html. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Roser, Max, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. “Global Extreme Poverty.” Our World in
Data, 25 May 2013, https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty. (Links to an external site.)
Brown, Desmond. “10 Reasons Why Cutting Poverty Is Good for Our Nation.”
Center for American Progress Action, 6 Dec. 2011,
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/poverty/news/2011/12/06/10771/10-reasons-why-cutting-poverty-is-good-for-our-nation/.
Burrowes, Katherine. “How Stable, Affordable Housing Can Help Tackle Food Insecurity.” Housing Matters, 3 Oct. 2019, https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-stable-affordable-housing-can-help-tackle-food-insecurity.
gov, cbo. “How Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage Could Affect Employment and Family Income.” Congressional Budget Office, 5 Apr. 2021, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55681.
