Poverty: What Determines either growth from or permanent placement

Poverty is determined by learned behavior and cultural differences, not one of circumstance and opportunity. What factors allow a person to either advance or stay in poverty. Many people live in poverty due to many reasons; some by sudden unforeseen extreme circumstances, others by inheritance. I’m going to focus on those that have inherited poverty, mainly families using government assistance. Although many people have risen from such families, there are a number of people that still choose to live in poverty, instead of trying to rise above it. There are a lot of ways for people to get out of this lifestyle. What makes them stay? I have lived in a neighborhood that shared space with Section 8 Housing. Being in the same neighborhood I got the chance to see firsthand that maybe poverty is something caused by learned behavior and cultural differences and not one of circumstance and lack of opportunities. When I talk about cultural differences, I’m not talking about race so much. My neighborhood was multiracial. I think there are certain things that affect people’s decisions when it comes to poverty that either allows them to rise out of it or stay there. One thing I noticed that some of the families that lived there were proud of the things that the material things that they were able to buy because they didn’t have to spend money on all the essentials that most people do so they live in a reality in which they can convince themselves that they had just as much if not more by being able to spend what money they may earn on wants. The fact that they were able to do this seems as if they were not aware of their true financial class in life. This behavior comes from the family unit. Some of the people that were in Section 8 tended to be very loud and had a seemingly invalid reason to be proud of the material things they owned. It’s as if the material items they possessed raised their economic status. Some of the things that keep determine if a person stays in poverty is the family structure. Since most Section 8 housing restricts the father from living with the mother. That means that these families have only one earner in the house. According to the article, *Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes, and Individual Development. “In 2008, mother-headed (single-parent) families, father-headed (single-parent) families, and traditional male-as-breadwinner families also had median incomes that were less than they had been in 2000 (in 2008 constant dollars; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2009). Married-couple families with both spouses working earn more than any other family structure. In contrast, the median income of mother-headed families was less than half that of married couple families throughout the 2000s.” Families that don’t have both parents especially the father tend to have a harder time rising from poverty. Since the 1960’s, families that had fatherless homes rose to 21%. Studies show that children living in fatherless households are five times higher to live below the poverty level than that of kids living with both parents. The reasons for this are when the responsibility is shared that it also relieves other stressors that come from child rearing. Kids with both working parents are more than likely to be better taken care of. The parents are able to spend more time with the child and are able to ensure that the child is getting the care and attention they need. Even families that are living below the poverty line have a higher chance of producing kids that will raise themselves out of poverty than those that don’t. There are kids from single parent households that rise out of poverty as well but they almost have to work extra hard and have like an obsessive mentality to break those chains. Many families that live in Section 8 tend to stay in poverty. One of the reasons I’ve noticed is that they seem to convince themselves that they are living ok. As I stated earlier, they believe that since their rent, food and utility bills are paid almost entirely or fully, any money they get outside of government assistance is basically free to take care of wants. This allows them to treat themselves and their families to material things. This is the example that so many people use when they call for more restrictions on government assistance. Although this is a stereotype, it is based on some fact. The truth behind it however, is that like almost everything else that fits a negative stereotype, it’s only the very vocal minority that live this way and not the majority. Race is also a factor that determines poverty and the ability to rise above or stay below it. *According to The Industrial World, “of white children born since 1980 in the US, about 50% will spend some part of their childhood in a single parent family. For black children the proportion is about 80%. The difference is mostly accounted for by the rise in the number of black children born outside of marriage.A likely explanation is that economic pressures have borne down more heavily on African-Americans. The difference in unemployment levels between young black men and young white men was almost negligible in 1955. By 1989, it had become a gap of 15 to 25 percentage points.” "The size of this racial gap in joblessness," argues Hernandez, "is at least two thirds the size of the 23 percentage point increase between 1960 and 1988 in the comparative proportions of black and white children living in mother-only families with never-married mothers." Being an African American male I grew up in a single parent home. I never spent time with my father nor did we receive any support from him. My mother worked two jobs when she didn’t have enough to pay bills and for us to live. This instilled in me the need to work and to not allow myself to accept government assistance like Section 8 or EBT assistance. Also what helped to shape me is that I grew up in the south for a while on my granddad’s farm. There I got a big taste of manual labor and a sense of taking care of myself. My granddad’s farm was too small then for money making crops such as tobacco or cotton. I’m very thankful that I was born too late for that. He had sold a lot of his land and only farmed on the small fields that he could fit on his 6 acre lot his house was on. Although he was an import male figure in my life, he was much too old and was fighting death to really impart a lot of things that a young man should learn on his way to adulthood. I think that the effect that he had on my life was reflected on me actually before I ever went to live with him. My mom grew up when he was farming for a living being one of eleven girls and two boys she was a part of the workforce that he used to operate his farm. Having a mother that new all about hard work and not accepting any excuses made her into a parent that only accepted hard work that no room for excuses. She set the bar for whatever excuses I may have wanted to use pretty high and made the penalty for using any excuses very severe. I think that most kids that come from single parent families have parents that were like that regardless of them being from a farm or not. I know for me that is what enabled me to make sure I work hard in order to provide for my family. According to all that I have read and my own personal experience, it seems that those that stay in poverty are affected by learned behavior and cultural differences. Although these obstacles can be overcome, studies show that it takes more of an effort to rise above and stay out of poverty. Also, even though it’s possible, the numbers show that it’s very unlikely. This is because those that live in poverty tend to find ways to cope with it and may lose desire or chose to not take advantage of opportunities that may be afforded. *According to Michael De Groote, author of Getting unstuck. He states that according to Pew's Economic Mobility Project research in 2013 70% of those born in the bottom fifth never make it to the middle class. The factors Michael states that affect this are education, dual earners, unemployment, race and savings and wealth. These are the usual suspects when it comes to the ability of people to rise out of poverty.

References * Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes, and Individual Development
Rand D. Conger, Katherine J. Conger, and Monica J. Martin http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2910915/ * Absent fathers linked to economic pressures
No author given http://www.unicef.org/pon96/inabsent.htm * Getting unstuck: Why some people get out of poverty and others don't
MONEYWISE Michael De Groote
http://national.deseretnews.com/article/591/getting-unstuck-why-some-people-get-out-of-poverty-and-others-dont.html