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Why Can't We End Poverty in America?

In: Social Issues

Submitted By jhauser719
Words 1835
Pages 8
Why can’t we end Poverty in America?
Jake Hauser
English 102
12/6/13

Today in the United States, more than 46 million Americans are living in poverty. The word poverty is defined as; the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. In other words, poverty is essentially the state of being poor.
In a broad perspective, there are two types of poverty. There is relative poverty which refers to people who live in poor accommodations, cannot afford certain necessities, and struggle to make ends meet. In most cases for theses people, there is welfare available to help them so it would be rare for them to go without somewhere to live or to go starving. The other kind of poverty is known as absolute poverty. This is the kind of poverty that you would see in third world countries. These people have no food, no water and no help and it usually leads to death.
Believe it or not, poverty is a worldwide problem that is taking place in every nation on the globe. In fact, half of the people in the world today are living on less than $2.50 per day. Statistically, Haiti is the most poverty stricken country in the world, with 77% of it’s population living below the poverty line. It also has a 40% unemployment rate, and many poverty-stricken people live on less than $1 a day.
The United States may not be the most poverty stricken country in the world, but that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t a big problem in our country. One out of every six people in the United States are living in poverty, and one out of every five children in the U.S. are also affected by it. According to the U.S. government, a family of four is living in poverty if they are making less than $22,811 a year. The U.S. Census Bureau claims that the poverty rate in the United States has been stuck at 15 percent for the past two years,

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