Poverty is a lack of goods and services necessary to maintain
a minimal adequate standard of living. The definition of the term adequate varies,
however, with the general standard of living in a society and with public attitudes
toward deprivation. No university accepted definition of basic needs exists because
poverty is a relative concept. In poorer countries it means living at the brink of
subsistence, while in our country few improvised families confront starvation, although
many suffer from undernourishment.
A key issue in the area of poverty is inequality. Inequality
has been a problem in all societies. No society distributes income evenly. Despite all
the conceptual and technical problems of measurement, the government has devised a
widely cited poverty index that reflects the different consumption requirements of
families depending on their size and composition, on the sex and age of the family head,
and on weather they live in rural or urban areas. Based on past surveys, the designers
of the poverty index determined that families of three or more person spend approximately
one-third of their income on food. Thus, the poverty level for these families was,
therefore, set at three times the cost of the economy food plan. For smaller families
and persons living alone, the cost of the economy food plan was multiplied by higher
factors in order to compensate for the larger fixed expenses of smaller households. The
poverty thresholds are updated every year to reflect changes in the consumer price index
but overall rises in standard of living. (levington, page 147)
Another issue is that the poverty index has several flaws.
First, it does not allow for regional variations in the cost of living or for higher
costs in the central city areas, where many of the poor are concentrated. Second, the
flood costs for the budget were designed for temporary or emergence use and are thus
inadequate for a perment diet because they provide only the barest subsistence. Finally,
the government statistics fall to take into consideration nonmonetary benefits and assets
in determining the number of poor. If these were counted, the numbers in the official
poverty ranks would be reduced.
The growing gap between the poverty level and median family
income demonstrates the inaccuracy of adjusting a poverty level for price increase but
not for rising living standard and productivity gains. Alternative definitions and
concepts also have a major impact on the poverty estimates that if transfer payments or
income support programs such as social security are not counted, then about twenty
percent of all American families lived in poverty during 1988, Government income
transfers are, however, included in the official poverty index, and this fact reduced the
relative number of destitute Americans. If in-kind programs such as Medicaid, subsidized
housing, and food stamps were also included, then the percentage in poverty might have
been further reduced, (Fitchen, page 97)
Another issue is that some particular groups are more likely
to experience poverty than others. For instance, blacks are three times as likely to be
poor as whites. Families headed by women are nearly five times more likely to be poor
than other families. Families where the head has no more than eight years of schooling
are nearly five times as likely to be poor compared to families headed by college
educated person. Minority and female headed units are not only more likely to be poor
but less likely to escape from poverty. The poor face multiple impediments to
self-sufficiency, including joblessness, less than a high school education, and
dependence on welfare.
Their are four different major groups of poor people. They
are the elderly, children, employed working-age adults, and unemployed working-age
adults. Each of these groups has different problems that are addressed by different
programs.
Few elderly people hold jobs, and that is the main cause of
poverty among the elderly. Some of the elderly poor are willing and able to hold regular
jobs, but most cannot. An increasing number of elderly people living alone must support
themselves. As the elderly become more numerous and live longer, meeting their income
needs becomes increasingly burdensome. The best and often the only practicable way to
help the aged poor is to give them some form of income support. Their more costly
health-care needs must be met.
Two of five persons classified as poor are children under 18
years of age. This fact is of special social concern, because poor children who are
denied opportunities from the start are unfairly hindered in preparing themselves for
productive adult lives.
Low-income families are often driven into poverty by birth of additional
children. In society that ignores need in setting wages and that balks at providing
child care for women who might earn needed income, a higher incidence of poverty among
larger families is a logical consequence. Poor children also have special needs beyond
those which can be provided by giving their families higher incomes. In particular,
health care, compensatory educational, and vocational training are essential to provide
permanent freedom from poverty.
Although the problems is often overstated, unemployment remains a major cause
of poverty. The poor are the victims of forced idleness more frequently than the
nonpoor. Poor family heads are about 5.5times as likely to be unemployed as are the
nonpoor.(Katz, page 71)
Being employed does not in itself guarantee an adequate income. Many persons
worked full time year round and still remain poor. For these people and their families,
poverty results from low paying jobs as well as from large families and periods of
unemployment. The working poor also experience another labor market difficulties. Many
leave the work force voluntarily because of illness or disability or become discourage
about the prospects of finding a job and stop looking. A greater number of the working
poor are employed at low-paying jobs. In 1988, 40 percent of all poor persons worked but
could not overcome poverty. One-fifth of all poor families had two or more wage earner
for part of the year and remained poor. (Levitan, page 114)
The problems for the working poor are frequent joblessness, low wages,
deficient education, and inadequate skills. The plight of the working poor can be
alleviated by employment programs that streamline the operation of the labor market,
increase the productivity of low-income workers, and create opportunities for employment
and advancement. Legislation to eliminate discrimination must also be enforced when such
employment and training programs are implemented.
Programs provide goods and services directly to the needy to supplement their
income. Whatever the means of helping the poor with cash or in-kind income, public
attention must usually be focused on a specific problems in order to receive political
attention.
The necessary goods and services sometimes are not available on the market, and
direct provision is a more effective way of providing essential aid. Low-costing
housing, for example, desperately needed to combat homelessness, is not profitable to
construct and will not be provided by the private sector of the economy without direct
government action. Granting housing to the poor in the absence an increase in an
affordable housing supply might raise rents on existing units, as it did during the
1980's.
In a few cases the government may be able to provide goods and services more
efficiently than the private sector because of the savings that are inherent in such
large-scale transactions.
The government offers other services not so much to alleviate the suffering of
today's poor as to enhance the opportunities of their children to escape from poverty.
Helping families to avoid having more children than they desire is one of the most
productive ways of eliminating poverty. Proper care for mother and child is also
extremely important, so that the young will be healthy. The government also provides
some compensatory education from preschool to college for poor children.
Overall, is isolating the impact of these programs upon beneficiaries is not
always easy. Birth control and maternal care, designed to give children a better start
in life, also leave the mother in a better position to become economically self
sufficient or, at least, contribute to her own support. Similarly, the difference
between cash subsides and rehabilitative programs is often blurred, for instance,
stipends are necessary for the poor if they are to complete an effective training
program. These various strategies for helping the poor complement each other. Not only
must today's poverty be alleviated through cash and in-and aid, but steps must be taken
to reduce it in the future by better preparing young people and by giving the poor a
better chance in the job market.
Bibliography
Fitchen,Janet M.(1981). Poverty and Rural America
New York,York: Random house Publishing Company.
Jansson, Bruce S. (1988). The Reluctant Welfare State, A
History of Amercians Social Welfare Policies. Belmont, California:
Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Katz, Michael B. (1990) The Undeserving Poor the War on Poverty to the war on Welfare,
New York, New York.
Levitan, Sar A. And Shapiro, Issac. (1987), Working But Poor. New York, New York: The
free Press.
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