Poverty in the United States-The war on Poverty in the United States was declared in 1964 by Lyndon B. Johnson, President of The United States at the time, during his State of The Union address. He felt that national poverty had become a big enough problem in The United States that the term, "war" would fit the situation. In order to attack the issue of poverty, Johnson initiated public programs. According to www.npr.com, the website for National Public Radio, Making poverty a national concern set in motion a series of bills and acts, creating programs such as Head Start, food stamps, work study, Medicare and Medicaid, which still exist today." In order to better understand this issue, poverty must be defined. On the site, dictionary.com, poverty is defined as, "the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support." A sight dedicated to helping people suffering from poverty, known as Community Action Partnership, lists the top nine problems of the poor:
- Low Income
- Lack of Low-Cost Credit
- Inadequate Credit
- Lack of Information
- Fraud and Deception
- Legal Exploitation
- Inadequate Housing
- Lack of Public and Social Services
- Lack of Transportation
At the start of LBJ's campaign, the poverty rate in the United States was 22.4% or 39.5 Million people. According to public data provided by Google, this number is approximately the population of the State of California. The urgency of this issue has caused the War on Poverty to be a real concern.
Poverty around the World- According to www.dosomething.org, a website designated to fighting world poverty,
-"Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive."
-"Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day."
-"More than 800 million go hungry each day.Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school"
-These are drastic statistics, and call for an effort to end world poverty. According to the site, nearly 3 billion people, which accounts for half of the world's population, are considered "poor".
When talking about the issue of poverty, one will realize that there are many leading factors that can be attributed with poverty. It can also be noted that these attributes may be physical or situational, as well as mentally categorized. Before any of these may be stated, it is best that we first define the states of poverty in terms of severity. The first more extreme case of poverty is absolute poverty, in which a person cannot acquire or provide the minimal essentials of food and shelter. The other case is relative poverty, in which a person cannot acquire the basic day to day functions, such as adequate food and shelter, as well as clothing and medicine. Each of these areas can be divided into the various attributes of physical or situational and mental.
In a collective sense the more prominent attributes of poverty are physical and situational. These include hunger or malnutrition, illness or lack of medication leading to disease, and physical anxiety. If we were to consider the effects of poverty on women, especially pregnant women in poverty stricken states, the lack of nutrition and medical conditions can often lead to low birth rates, malnutrition, and deformities in the new born. There can also be more situational factors associated with poverty. These can be more subtle, with a family struggling financially to provide adequate food or proper care and necessities. Poverty could also in the situational sense be more extreme, including greater hunger, and in the most extreme cases, homelessness.
A lesser known part of poverty can be the mental states of the poor. These factors can range from a variety of sources, but are almost always passed down from generation to generation according to www.cliffnotes.com. These factors include negativity, hopelessness, powerlessness, inferiority, and passiveness. High levels of stress and anxiety are also common among the poor and poverty stricken. In addition to these factors, it can also be noted that the poor often have a lower level of education or intelligence. This cause alone may be a beginning cause of poverty, for if a person cannot find a job that will provide them the means of acquiring the necessities to remain out of poverty.
