Essays on Poverty in America

USA

Poverty is defined as the situation of lacking sufficient material possessions or income to meet one’s needs. The U.S. is considered to be a wealthy country by international standards, but it has surprisingly high poverty rates. The federal government focuses on two strategies for measuring poverty: the Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines and the U.S. Census Bureau poverty thresholds.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the poverty rates in the U.S. declined to some of the lowest levels that were ever recorded. However, the pandemic put around 8 million people in poverty between May and October 2020.

Statistics show that Hispanic and black persons are more likely to live in poverty than white persons. The rates are also very high among Native Americans.

• “If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community.” - Barack Obama
• “Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.” - Muhammad Ali
• “Poverty is relatively cheap to address and incredibly expensive to ignore.” - Clint Borgen

The topic of poverty can result with a passionate paper that holds a reader’s attention. The matter is open for case studies, personal experiences, observations, and different approaches that make it interesting.

It’s hard to offer solutions on the issue, as many approaches have been attempted without significant results.