Children and the Effects of Poverty

I chose poverty because it seems that it is striking so many families lately. During my undergraduate degree I done some observations at a local elementary school where poverty was evident. Many of the children grew up in the projects and were sent to school with uniforms that were to small or way to big, and many of them didn't have breakfast before hand. I remember one little girl very vivid. It was a cold October morning and she was sitting in class with pants that were about two inches too short but a jacket on that looked like it was her mothers. I remember thinking to myself "Wow, if only I could help this child and children like her." After the class the teacher made a comment to me that still sticks out in my mind. She said, "Get use to this scene, because this is what you get in this school. Children who are from poor homes and have parents that could care less." I walked away discouraged and thought "hmmm...it might be discouraging BUT those chilren may only have that teacher who they feel cares for them." Children do not ask for the circumstances that they are brought into. I have made it a goal to donate clothing to the clothes closets for less fortunate families, donate to food drives, or any other activiites that supports children in poverty.

As I thought of how poverty strikes anyone at anytime. I found some interesting research on it.

• "In 2008, 39.8 million people were in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007 -- the second consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty (Census Bureau 2010).
• The 2008 poverty rate (13.2 percent) was the highest since 1997 (Census Bureau 2010).
• In 2008, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 10.3 percent and 8.1 million, respectively, up from 9.8 percent and 7.6 million in 2007 (Census Bureau 2010).
• 15.4 million Americans live in extreme poverty. This means their family’s cash income is less than half of the poverty line, or less than about $10,000 a year for a family of four (CBPP 2007).
• 16 million low-income households either paid more for rent and utilities than the federal government says is affordable or lived in overcrowded or substandard housing (CBPP 2007).
• 46 million Americans — more than one in every seven — do not have  medical insurance (USBC 2009 p. 20).

Causes of hunger and poverty
(Hunger is principally caused by poverty so this section will focus on causes of poverty.)
There are, we believe, three main causes of poverty in the United States: poverty in the world; the operation of the political and economic system in the United States which has tended to keep people from poor families poor, and actual physical mental and behavioral issues among some people who are poor.
Poverty in the world  There are a lot of poor people in the world. An estimated 2 billion people are poor, and the same amount hungry (World Hunger Facts)  They are much, much, poorer than people in the United States.  As can be imagined, people do not want to be hungry and desperately poor.  In the world economic system there are two main ways in which relatively poor people have their income increased: through trade, and through immigration.  Trade, we believe, is the most important.

• Trade. It is important to understand some basic economics. We in the United States live in a rich country, that has a  large amount of capital--machinery, etc.--to produce things relative to the amount of labor--people that want to work. Poor countries have a lot of labor, but relatively little capital.  There is a basic idea of economics--the factor price equalization theorem--that states that wages in rich countries will tend to go down and increase in poor countries through trade (Wikipedia 2010b). Thus China, with low wages, puts pressure on wages in the United States, as production is shifted to China from the United States. This movement of production from richer to poorer countries is initiated by corporations, not individuals, but it does  shift jobs and income to poorer countries and people, and has been doing so for the last 30 years or so. Lower income people in the United States are particularly vulnerable to such shifts.
• Immigration.  A clear strategy for poor people is to go where there are higher paying jobs (often opposed to the alternative of no jobs at all). Thus immigration has been a major response to poverty by people in poor countries. "

http://www.worldhunger.org/