Problems with the Poverty Threshold
Problems with the Poverty Threshold
When I think of the term “poverty threshold”, I imagine some kind of physical barrier that is holding poor people back from living a normal life. These people fall under the poverty level and struggle for quite some time, like a fish out of water just hoping for someone to throw them back in so that they could possibly live a normal life. When looking at the gross yearly income that determines the poverty level, which is at about $31,800 for a four-person family (as of 2006), I think to myself ‘How can all of these people be living in such low standards?’ Well obviously they do not have a choice! I mean most of the people in poverty live in dirty places that are screaming with disease and they cannot afford to eat healthy food because the last thing on their mind is, ‘Do I have enough money to eat healthy food?’ but are rather thinking, ‘Will we get by this month, or even this week?’ After doing a little research of my own, my main concern makes me question why the poverty threshold cannot be raised in order to provide a better means of living so these people could possibly afford a healthy diet and even a better standard of living. If only our society could come up with a better means to create a healthy diet plan, decrease the risk of health problems and disease among impoverished communities, create better standards for living arrangements in these communities, and move on from the old paradigm way of thinking into the new paradigm way of acting we could possibly avoid further impoverishment and end up raising the poverty threshold in order to assist in the accomplishment of these important goals. If no change is made to the poverty threshold, poor people will continue to live in terrible conditions and never have a real chance to live a normal life.
Better Diet Plan When looking at what determines a dietary health plan for a poor person I found that “the poverty threshold in use today assumes that a low-income
When I think of the term “poverty threshold”, I imagine some kind of physical barrier that is holding poor people back from living a normal life. These people fall under the poverty level and struggle for quite some time, like a fish out of water just hoping for someone to throw them back in so that they could possibly live a normal life. When looking at the gross yearly income that determines the poverty level, which is at about $31,800 for a four-person family (as of 2006), I think to myself ‘How can all of these people be living in such low standards?’ Well obviously they do not have a choice! I mean most of the people in poverty live in dirty places that are screaming with disease and they cannot afford to eat healthy food because the last thing on their mind is, ‘Do I have enough money to eat healthy food?’ but are rather thinking, ‘Will we get by this month, or even this week?’ After doing a little research of my own, my main concern makes me question why the poverty threshold cannot be raised in order to provide a better means of living so these people could possibly afford a healthy diet and even a better standard of living. If only our society could come up with a better means to create a healthy diet plan, decrease the risk of health problems and disease among impoverished communities, create better standards for living arrangements in these communities, and move on from the old paradigm way of thinking into the new paradigm way of acting we could possibly avoid further impoverishment and end up raising the poverty threshold in order to assist in the accomplishment of these important goals. If no change is made to the poverty threshold, poor people will continue to live in terrible conditions and never have a real chance to live a normal life.
Better Diet Plan When looking at what determines a dietary health plan for a poor person I found that “the poverty threshold in use today assumes that a low-income
References: Crossette, B. (2004). Hurting the World 's Poor in Morality 's Name [Electronic version] Iverson, Roberta Rehner, and Annie Laurie Armstrong. Jobs Aren 't Enough. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. King, G., & Murray, C. (2001-2002). Rethinking Human Security [Electronic version] Mangum, G., Sum, A., & Fogg, N. (2000, March/April). Poverty Ain 't What It Used to Be [Electronic version]. Challenge, 43(2), 97-130. Quinn, S. (2006, February). Hurricane Katrina: A Social and Public Health Disaster [Electronic version] Saegert, S., & Evans, G. (2003). Poverty, Housing Niches, and Health in the United States [Electronic version] Tanner, E., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (2002, April). Nutrition and Brain Development: Social Policy Implications [Electronic version]