Preview

The Working Poor Essay Example

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1529 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Working Poor Essay Example
It’s difficult to imagine how some people hold multiple jobs to support themselves or their families and still struggle on day to day basis. The saying the rich get’s richer and poor gets poorer has never been so evident in today’s society. Let’s begin by explaining what poor is? According to (Encarta English Dictionary 2006) poor is explained as someone “lacking money, material possessions, unemployed and insecure”. Poor is also divided into two distinctive groups, the deserving and the undeserving poor (Levine & Rizvi, 2005, p.38). “The deserving poor are poor through no fault of their own but as a result of a disability, loss of employment, and economical change”. “The undeserving poor are poor because of their own interpersonal skills, self confidence, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and damaged character”. There has also been talk of a new occurrence of the “working poor” in Australia. Perspectives on Poverty: NCOSS 2007 Conference LHMU defines the working poor as “earnings less than $500 a week”. Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that in “1995 the working poor represented just 10% of workers over 21 years of age. In 2003 this had doubled to 20% and indicates that it has likely grown since” (ABS, 2003, as cited in Perspectives on poverty conference, 2007)
With a growing percentage of people measured the “working poor” one has to question the government policies enacted to elevate the living standards for its people. Government policies greatly influence the everyday life of its people. Strategic plans should be sought out to ensure that the poor are not disadvantaged or discriminated in the society. Labelling the poor in need by deciding and being selective in who deserves what rather they should focus on finding solutions to ever growing problems of the poor.
How can the poor regain control over their finances, have confidence, clear mental state, self esteem and have faith in this society?
Discussion of this paper will focus on how poor people would

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Now in days, television shows and movies depict the poor as people with no ambition, no dignity, people who cannot be happy with themselves while living in poverty. These negative stereotypes often fill people with a stigma of being or becoming poor. Many of us in this generation, who grew up in poverty or with blue-collar workers as parents, have dealt…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Common Poorwill Essay

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Description: Common Poorwills grow to a length from 19 to 21 centimeters and they are relatively medium in size. They have brilliant colored feathers that create a pattern similar to snake scales that are colored brown, gray, white, and black. Their tail feathers are lateral-oriented. Their beaks are short, wide, and curved. They also have bristles on their faces [1].…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Working Poor Summary

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In “The Working Poor” Shipler gives an example of a poor grandmother named Leetha Butler who lived in Washington, D.C. and how even though she has very little in terms of finances her spirit and wits are exceedingly high considering her situation of poverty and how she takes care of her daughters orphaned children ages three, eight and sixteen (Shipler 29). After her daughter Diane was murdered in a drive-by-shooting, she did not collapse under the weight of grief because she understood somebody needed to be there and be strong for her grandchildren and support them after her daughter’s death. Furthermore, she used her expertise in saving expenses and spending when local deals were present to accommodate having the new responsibility of her grandchildren.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Working Class DBQ Essay

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Document A: George Henry Evans wrote the document to represent the working class men. In the document, Evans argues that the working class should have the same rights as other classes. He even quotes a part of the Declaration of Independence to support his argument. At the time, the democrats deprived the working class men from their rights, and they abused the working class men instead of protecting their rights. It was during the first year of Jackson’s presidency that the working class organized their own party to defend their rights. When Jackson became president, he attempted to protect the working class men’s equality of economic opportunity. The working class even received the right to vote. Jackson became known as a true democrat and a protector of the common man because of all he had done for the working class. This document is an example of political democracy.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Homelessness affects three and a half million people living in the United States each year. Unfortunately, families with children are the fastest growing variable of the homeless population (“Helping the Homeless” 1). There are many different variables that results in these people falling into poverty. These families or individuals are often forgotten or ignored, resulting in dropping out of their schooling to search for an employment opportunity. While some believe that these individuals should use their own resources to find their way out of poverty, others find that programs should be provided within the community to aid these individuals. These individuals should have to get back onto their own feet. However, they should have some government…

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision making. Various social groups bear disproportionate burden of poverty.” – United Nations Social Policy and Development…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Great Depression, Americans living in the West developed characteristics such as self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, tenacity, and occasionally optimism, qualities that helped them survive through this period of hardship. Despite the lack of aid and attention from the government and the influential upper classes of society, lower-class Americans survived the Great Depression through various means, often unconventional and illegal. However, the collective poverty and struggle had a positive aspect, in that those living in the West looked after each other through the difficult times.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Working Poor Analysis

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are over six million ex-convicts in the United States. Research proposes that the best way for ex-cons to avoid prison again is to reintroduce them into the working world and find them jobs. However, most employers are hesitant to give them a chance. With the unemployment rate approaching its highest it makes keeping a job is challenging. When a person has been to prison, their chances of getting hired decrease drastically. Chapter five of David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Shipler emphasizes attaining a job, maintaining a job, and living while employed to construct his arguments on the barriers and biases that the working poor have to overcome.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Growing Up In Poverty

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages

    It can be debated that financial prominence is the most important aspect of a person's place in society, more so than race, gender, or religion. This paper reconnoiters the effects of growing up in poverty and the economic, social, and psychological effects of being raised in such an environment. In today’s world, the word poverty is well known throughout most societies. Poverty may have the definition of anyone who lives pay check to pay check. Or for some poverty may be as extreme as one who lives underneath any shelter they can find with no belongings. John Kenneth Galbraith’s definition of poverty is when an individual’s income, even if adequate for survival, falls behind that of the community’s standard. Poverty may also be defined as…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In our failed efforts to put an end to poverty in America, it is still remains alive and well, leaving millions of Americans to subject themselves to strenuous acts just to feed themselves and their families. The problem of persistent poverty is a complex one that makes people living in America finding themselves unable to make ends meet, for themselves in the competitive, through no fault of themselves.…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Working Poor Summary

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The term "poverty" is defined by the Federal government as an annual income of less than $19,223 for a single adult with three children (2004). This definition creates a rigid line forming two populations in the United States: those who fall under the line are poor and those above the line are not poor. David K. Shipler highlights the shortcomings of such a definition in The Working Poor: Invisible in America. As the title suggests, there is a needy population often overlooked by public assistance, job training programs, charity organizations, and the greater population as a whole. This refers to those who linger just above the somewhat arbitrary poverty line. Through the use of personal stories, Shipler illustrates the lives of many people…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is poverty? Poverty is not being able to afford basic needs. The poverty line in America is different third-world countries. Some people who are in poverty here would be considered rich somewhere else. A lot of people confuse need and want. They buy things they want instead of what they need. People take the things they have for granted. For example, if they have a house, they want a bigger one, but there are some people out there who just want somewhere to live.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty is not just a problem in America, poverty is not just a problem in foreign countries, poverty is not just among a certain race, poverty is a worldwide issue that can affect anyone, even your community. Seeing examples of poverty throughout life can be very emotional, it lives all around. Pretty much anywhere there are people who are homeless, maybe begging for food or money. People walking to get where they need to go because they can not afford a car or possibly gas. Seeing kids at school come in without a jacket on when it is snowing outside because their families can not afford a winter coat for them. These are all examples of poverty.…

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Myth Of Poverty Essay

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    We all pay the everyday price of running a high-poverty regime even if we’ve grown so accustomed to it that we no longer realize it.If opportunities for a college education were indeed equalized, the effect on the labor supply would register only gradually as advanced generations of poor children increasingly went to college. Should people sit back and wait for the long-term adjustment to take hold? Of course not. It is troubling in this regard that the number of nonworking poor is on the rise. According to studies, the proportion of all 25- to 54-year-olds who held jobs was almost 5 percent lower than it was when the Great Recession…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty was defined as a household income of less than $10,000. A population in which more than 25 percent of people reported their race or ethnicity as non-Hispanic black was considered racially segregated. People in poverty do not have the means to meet their basic needs. Since they have limited income they become hungry from little amounts of food. Their hungry in turn causes them to resort to stealing. The crime rate are higher in poverty areas. Since they do not have the means to buy hygiene products, they are more likely to have health problems and diseases. Death is ultimately the outcome since the poor do not have the income to purchase medicine. Poverty also play a big role in education causing behavioral and academic problems. Poverty doesn’t affect only the people that are going through it but it effects everyone and every country.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays