Who Is To Blame For Poverty In America

Poverty in America: Who is to Blame?

You see them on the street corners. The poor, the seemingly hopeless, holding up their cardboard signs, and asking for help. Their eyes meet yours and you cannot help but look away in disgust. You work hard for your money. Why should you give it away to a stranger who looks perfectly capable of earning a living? If this is true, why do you feel a sense of shame when you pass them by? Who is to blame for poverty in America? The poor in America are seen as being less than human because of their economic status. In the article Poverty and Class: Discussing the Undiscussible, John Korsomo PhD., of Human Resources and Rehabilitation, Western Washington University talks about the transformation of his
In this case, “poor” is seen as a “lifestyle” choice. Politicians have always sought ways to end poverty. Campaigns to improve the quality of life of poor Americans were created and the government welfare programs were born. Poor Americans welcomed these programs while others argued that government welfare was creating a generational dependence upon government handouts (Source 9). Over the past two decades politicians have entered a period where government welfare has steadily decreased in response to public pressure to decrease government spending. In a 2013 Wall Street Journal poll (Source 10), 24 % of Americans still blamed the United States government for continuing poverty in our country. American’s still feared that the poor’s dependence upon government handouts was decreasing their initiative to be self-supportive (Source 10). Politicians have had a roller coaster response to the poverty crisis in our country based upon public response from constituents. President Johnson declared a war on poverty while later presidents, such as Bill Clinton sought to end the public’s dependence upon government support (Source 9). The overall consensus is that early government welfare programs did lead to a certain percentage of the poor population choosing to welfare rather than initiatives of upward mobility (Source 9). However, overall government welfare programs were not geared
The majority of American’s designated as being below the poverty level are working minimum wage jobs. The current economic buzz is rather or not to increase the minimum wage as a means of helping America’s poorest workers. The White House Council of Economic Advisors published a briefing in early 2014 that indicated that minimum wage could be raised 40 % without triggering job losses (Source 11). The positive aspect of this minimum wage increase would be passed down to 900,000 poor Americans who work these types of jobs (Source 12). To those living in poverty this is a positive solution to the reliance upon government welfare subsidies or the need to work multiple jobs to support growing families (Source 12). However, the Congressional Budget Office published another report in response to the proposed hikes that indicated that if minimum wage were to rise 40 % there would be a loss of over 500,000 jobs (Source 11). The idea of raising minimum wage to offset the needs of poor American’s seems like a quick fix for the issue of poverty. Yet, the loss of jobs for this same group of American’s seems unfathomable. The poor who typically work these minimum wage jobs are looking for relief from the pressures of long hours working multiple jobs in order to survive (Source 12). Either way the economic cost of America’s poor is passed on to all tax payers through increased taxes to