...Willow Creek Care Center, waiting for the shipments of food to help feed her family. After losing her job, house, car, and money, Kris Offerman was once a strong member of the middle class of America that got deprived of her once fantastic life. She now lives in an apartment, stuck in the endless cycle of poverty, unable to jump out of the hole she was thrown in. Everyday, millions of people have to struggle through these hardships, yet many are...
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...issues that have continued to have a big impact on the lives of many people in the United States of America. Poverty and discrimination are closely related and intertwined since one always leads to the other and vice versa. Poverty is a state of having little or no resources such as money, goods, or means of support necessary to sustain life. Those who are stricken by poverty do not live a comfortable live, but merely survive. Poverty occurs in almost in all parts of the world. There are two types of poverty namely absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is due to lack of basic human needs such as food, shelter and clothing. It is a life threatening condition. Absolute poverty is rampant in developing nations in Africa such as Zimbabwe. Relative poverty is whereby a comparison based on resources is done to determine the level of poverty. Discrimination refer to the differential treatment of people based on various factors such as their economic status, level of education, race, gender, ethnic group any other group that people may be associated with. Although America has undergone tremendous transformation since the era of Martin Luther King, discrimination is still very rampant in United States. Sociological theories of poverty in America Poverty is a complicated social phenomenon, and trying to discover the cause of poverty is equally complicated (Mason, 2006). In America the sociological theories and reasoning attributes poverty to personal failure of an individual...
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...November 15, 2013 Vargas Outlaw For many decades, immigration has been a major controversy in America. The Majority of immigrants come to America in hope of a better life, but once here immigrants face a series of obstacles. Some of these obstacles are: Migration, lack of proper documents, and financial issues. These obstacles have made it difficult for illegal immigrants to gain their citizenship, but despite the struggles and hardships they have to go through it is still possible for them to overcome the obstacles and pursue their dreams. Many illegal immigrants usually migrate to different countries for a better life and better opportunities. Most immigrants see the United States as the land of opportunity. Migrating to a different country means adapting to a different kind of lifestyle in terms of culture, and language. In Vargas case his first challenge was adapting to the language. He wanted to lose his accent so he spent hours watching television, reading magazines, books and newspapers trying to adapt. Language is an important part of living in the U.S. In order to get certain jobs you have to adapt to the language and also have the proper documents. Lack of proper documents is often a problem for many illegal immigrants. Having lack of proper documents makes it hard to find sufficient employment, and not having sufficient employment makes it hard to live in America. When immigrants migrate to a different country illegally they usually hide their identity due to...
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...Introduction Homelessness is a critical issue within the United States of America. According to the United States federal law and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, if a person lacks a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence the person is then considered homeless. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported that on a single night in January 2015 564,708 people in the United States were considered homeless, meaning they had no place to sleep. In the 1870s the issue of homelessness in America emerged causing many homeless people to live in urban cities. In the 1930s this issue worsened due to the Great Depression, causing poverty and more than two million people were homeless and in search of work. The homeless...
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...America is known for its ability to be innovative and for its educational value. Some may argue that America has lost its competitive edge when it comes to education and innovation. Some may say that the Chinese are now the leaders in innovation and education. The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, collects test results from 65 countries for its rankings, which come out every three years. The latest results, from 2012, show that U.S. students ranked below average in math among the world's most-developed countries. They were close to average in science and reading (NPR, 2013). According to (Zakaria, 2011) in the 1970s, “California public schools were the envy of the world”. Currently, California public schools aren’t as great as they were in the 1970s. With the decline in the quality of teachers and curriculum California schools are suffering when it comes to national test scores and graduation rates. In addition, public schools across America suffer from low performing teachers and students. As stated by Zakaria, America has the shortest school days and school year in comparison to other countries. In other countries such as Finland and China longer school days and schools years have been proven to work in regards to the advancement of students. Also, with the requirement that all teachers have a master’s degree ensures that the students will have a high caliber teacher. Zakaria also stated that he believes that longer school days and a longer...
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...Obesity Epidemic Since the 1980’s obesity in America has been on a steady increase and many question the cause. The question among professionals has been what’s the cause, the source of obesity in American? While there has been much discussion about the effects of obesity, the causes of obesity remains the highlight of the issue. To truly understand obesity we must first discuss the causes, rather its lack of job, changing social habits, or the easy access of fast foods. With the introduction of robotics and shipping jobs overseas we have seen a dramatic decline in hard working physical jobs in America. Such a decline has led to more, less physical desk jobs and long unemployment, aid in leading to obesity. No more are the 8 – 12 hr working days when you needed that lunch to get you by, and in a lot of cases healthy eating choices weren’t close by to consider. The days when our parent’s used to take a lunch pail into work with a sandwich, a fruit, and crackers with peanut butter have been replaced by less healthier choices such as packaged meals, or a nearby fast food chains which seem to be on every corner now and days. Just with the lack of physical jobs you can start to see why we have an obesity problem but this is just one example. Since the introduction of gaming consoles in the 1980’s children have been getting less physical activity outdoors. Prior to gaming children used to play outside doing such things as going to parks, fishing, playing tag, and various...
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...Hurt our Economy Our nation has often been referred to as a “melting pot”, which is one of the many great things about America. Many people come here for a better life for them and their families and everyone deserves the freedoms and opportunities that America has to offer. As a great nation, laws are in place for the greater cause of our people, meaning that lawbreakers are typically punished and dealt with accordingly; However, it doesn’t seem to hold much truth in today’s immigration laws. Today’s economy is hurting more than ever. With our growing unemployment rate, and our depleting funds, it doesn’t make much sense to keep letting the economy and it’s legal citizens suffer because of lawbreakers. Illegal immigrants are hurting our economy by taking unrightful employment, placing a financial burden on the economy, and lowering the social system of the United States. Illegal Immigrants take the jobs that should be given to our legal citizens. As a result, many American citizens are losing their jobs, while many others are competing for the jobs that illegal immigrants hold illegally.“ Some research estimates that nearly two million Americans a year are displaced by immigration” (Federation for American 2). With Americans losing their jobs at that rate and being replaced by the growing number of illegal immigrants, the...
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...The Department of Corrections releases prisoners on a daily bases. The time that these prisoners spend within the four walls of a prison cell varies by years. Once released a large percentage of them end up back in prison because they lack the skills needed to function successfully in society. The other problem that they encounter is being able to find a job. Many job applications today ask if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony, those that must answer yes are given less job opportunities than those that have not. Also, if they have been convicted of a felony it becomes part of their permanent record and when a place of employment completes a background check this individuals felony shows up. Released prisoners going back to...
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...According to article, “Overview of Homelessness In America”, “ In the U.S., more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year.” Many people in our society are facing financial difficulties and are not able to pay rent or take care of other nececcities. Homelessness is a problem and it can happen to Americans every age, ethnicity, or background. 3.5 million people are homeless each year and don’t have resources and help to recover from difficulties in life. The majority of the people are not able to pay rent or bills with their low–paying jobs. Many people are also not able to pay rent with minimum wage jobs and soon become homeless because of this. Homelessness is a common issue in society and many factors contribute to homelessness such as lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and disabilities. The main cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. Many are not able to pay their monthly rent because the amount is very high. Those who have jobs that don’t pay very well, have immense difficulty in paying their rent. According to the city officials, “Low-income households spend an average of 45 percent of their income on housing”(“Leading Cause of Homelessness in the United States” 1). If most of the money is used to pay rent, then there will not be enough money for food, clothing, and other basic...
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...Abstract This paper discusses the challenges that America is facing in the race to be first in the world regarding the importance of obtaining a higher education for a better workforce of the nation. The rapid increase in globalization of the 21st century has completely changed the course of the world allowing a vast open playing field and competition from every direction. Foreign students have gained access to the American workplace due to outsourcing and breached the job market for American workers who lack the necessary skillset and education qualifications. While the worldly competition in education has drastically increased, President Obama has addressed a goal for the nation by 2020-for America to be top in the highest proportion of college graduates of the world. One of the greatest challenges that plays as an obstacle for this goal is the problematic college access. On the contrary, Germany has found that college education is not a necessity at all and has successfully maintain a low unemployment rate. However, the economy and government of the United States is structured very differently, and the framework of Obama’s plan proved that a stronger educated population is directly correlated with a stronger nation itself. History and Theoretical Framework For much of America’s history, a college education was not needed to make a decent living as the difference between the average wages of high school and college graduates was very minor. After WWII, however, the growth...
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...Although Latin America has faced many social, political, and economic issues within the last three centuries, inequality remains one of the most important, historical, and omnipresent aspects of the region’s culture. As Europeans took over Latin America during the time of colonization, they implemented many elitist social structures that have held strong and are evident today (Harris). Income inequality is the most visible and greatest disparity that the region faces; yet inequality between gender, ethnicities, and education remain strong and significant problems with a necessity for improvement. Inequality of wealth and disparity of power and influence are Latin American’s greatest curses and are at the root of many of the developmental, social, criminal, and political problems that continue to plague the region (De Ferranti). Since inequality has pervaded into every feature of Latin American society, it is important to measure inequality accurately in order to obstruct the causes of the discrimination and prevent new ones from beginning. The Gini Coefficient is an effective way that people indicate the inequality of a country by measuring a frequency distribution of income or wealth. Using the "Gini Index" of inequality in the distribution of income and consumption, the researchers found that Latin America and the Caribbean, from the 1970s through the 1990s, measured nearly 10 points more unequal than Asia, 17.5 points more unequal than the 30 countries in the Organization...
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...countries all over the world came to America to escape persecution and lack of jobs. Emma Lazarus, a poet, described the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of the welcoming arms in the western world, in her poem, “The New Colossus”. However, America as a country only partly lived up to the words in Lazarus's poem because they provided jobs and helped the immigrants adjust to the language and culture in America, but they did not allow for all races to come to America. America lived up to these words by taking in as many immigrants as possible despite their status. Lazarus stated,”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Living up to these words, Americans created settlement houses to help the less fortunate immigrants adjust to life in a new country by helping them learn and the understand the language and culture of America. The U.S. also helped immigrants adjust to life in America by providing a large number of jobs that required little to no skill. Hence, Americans lived up to the words in Lazarus’s poem because they not only helped the poor learn the culture and language of Americans, but they also...
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...Stem Research Paper Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is impacting our nation’s potential in national defense, economic strength, and other societal needs, according to John F. Sargent Jr., a specialist in Science and Technology Policy(1). In 2005, three prominent reports, entitled Innovate America, Tapping America’s Potential, and Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, were released which discussed the controversy whether United States of America is falling behind other countries in STEM. The three reports consider wide perspectives of issues concerning STEM from competitiveness to the workforce in the United States. According to Innovate America, all issues...
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...Diversity of Hispanic Minorities in America Diversity of Hispanic Minorities in America The American soil has experienced centuries of Spanish inhabitants beginning with the legendary explorers during the 15th century. Hispanic visitors of this decade have not traveled from the European nations; they are from Mexico and islands South of Florida. The inhabitants of Mexico, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and The Dominican Republic have entered the United States both legally and illegally in search of a better life. The largest group of Hispanic immigrants is the Mexicans. The Mexicans represented 66.9% of the Hispanic population of the United States in 2002 (Schaefer, 2006, p. 236). Census figures confirm that 69% of illegal aliens inhabiting America in 2009 entered from Mexico. If fact, nearly one out of ten Mexicans currently resides in the United States (Terrazas, 2010). The linguistic choices of Mexican immigrants are 23% English dominant, 26% English and Spanis- speaking, and 51% Spanish (Schaefer, 2006, p. 241) The language barriers lead to inadequate schooling and less chance for economic advancement. Over half of Mexican immigrants entering America have not graduated high school or obtained proper documentation for employment; this leads to employment of most in unskilled fields. With less than 6% of immigrants earning a college degree, few immigrants qualify for professional positions (Buffington, 2011). Most Mexican immigrant males find employment as factory or construction...
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...& Power in America Name Institution Wealth & Power in America 1. In your opinion, who has political power in the United States? Who lacks it? Why? The congress has the political power in the United States. This is because the congress is entitled to writing the laws. The government and the president do not have the political power in U.S. The president is only entitled to signing the laws made by the congress. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, only decides whether the made laws are constitutional or not (Barret, Stokholm, & Burke, 2001). The wealth and the rich also have immense political power in U.S. 2. What is your opinion of the "American Dream" and the idea that anyone can work hard and succeed? “American Dream” refers to a concept that argues that people can lead happy and successful lives if they embrace the need to work hard. It also argues that freedom, meaningful relationships, and a person’s fulfillment can be achieved if a person works hard. However, in my opinion, not all people can achieve the goal of this dream. This is attributed to the society-structure of the United States. People live in varying social classes, ethnicity, and religion. This different structure of the American society hinders the achievement of this dream (Barret et al., 2001). Some people face a lot of discrimination in the workplaces. Discrimination, in most of these workplaces, is based on one’s color and background ethnicity. Such people are denied job opportunities...
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