Inequality And Poverty In America Coursework Example

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Inequality and Poverty in America
Summary
In the Documentary What Poor Child is This? Poverty and America’s Children by Brandon Fox from Stephen F. Austin State University, America is categorized among the top five wealthiest countries across the world. However, the level of inequality in the country is alarming and still taking it back to the top as one of the countries with the broadest rich and poor man gap. Economic imbalance, as claimed by Fox is the primary cause of poverty in America and has contributed significantly to children growing in poverty. As a result, the poverty lineage in the family is passed down from grandparents to parents and parents to the children. Despite the talk about the possible rise from rags to riches, Fox reports in his documentary that it is one of many that manage to cross the bridge to the rich side. Fox captures the fact that America has the highest number of millionaires and billions in the world than any other country and despite the positive statistics concerning wealth, the number of people living in poverty has continued to rise. In this case, the sumptuous feast while the poor fast day in day out. Fox ties the increasing level of poverty in American to the economic and social difficulties that face a large number of American citizens. Lack of proper healthcare, adequate and quality education and parenting and risky and detrimental social environment results in increasing cases of children being raised under roofs with insufficient income.

The child grew up with health complications such as mental illness and subjected to polluted, risky and insecure environments. There is very little investment directed towards funding the growing process of the American child and in turn leads to a miserable and highly stressful life that causes some of them to engage in criminal activities, teenage pregnancy, and drug addiction problems. In turn, the government provides adult social care that is much more expensive compared to if the investment was made to ensure the child grows up in a favorable environment and receive proper education enough to guarantee them a better and well-paying job. Some of the solutions to end child poverty as stated in Fox’s documentary include creating better employment policies. In this case, the parents will be financially stable to raise their children, improving the quality of education the children from the low-income families receive and also developing a favorable social environment to allow the children have a positive attitude towards life as they grow up.
Sensory Ozlem, in the book: “Is Everyone Really Equal?” An introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education address the issue revolving around inequalities in American and Canada and explains some of the causes and agents that maintain the inequality trend in the countries. Sensoy and Robin (154), start off with a narrative of Mr. Rich and Mr. Poor White men in a quest to attain their selfish interest at the extent of oppressing their subjects, the Blackman. The story is an accurate reflection of what has been going in the country as still; the owning class is playing the cards of keeping the poor more miserable every day as they earn billion out of their hard work. According to Sensoy and Robin (155) classism during the agricultural revolution that made people such as Mr. Rich White man extremely rich and powerful and in control of Mr. Poor and the Blackman. Sensoy and Robin (157) capture the place of the middle class within the tension between the wealthy and low-income families terming them as the “Red Cross group” providing all that the poor and the rich need to survive and exist within with respective classes. Sensoy and Robin (159) divide the economic status of people in America and Canada under four categories, that is, the owning class, the middle class, the working class and the poor. In his description, Sensoy and Robin (159) cite that the position of the four groups are relational and fluid and hence one can move from one to another. Moreover, the owning class is regarded as those in control of the society having the highest media influence and power and manage the most significant share of the countries resources. The middle-class group is considered to be those who have attained wealth and have succeeded to acquire a higher level of education that the working class. The poor in Sensoy and Robin case, include those surfacing and unable to meet their basic needs and are left to the government to help them survive. Some of the causes of the various classes as a state by Sensoy and Robin (160) is more of capitalism in the society than socialism. To advocate for equal distribution of resource and reduction in poverty levels in the country, Sensoy and Robin (167) promote the concept of intersectionality so that everyone else can see the extent at which oppression has affected the society and how no one except those within the owning class can feast out of everything.
Reaction
After to water, poverty takes up a significant share of the earth landmass. No country across the world has been able to eliminate poverty from the society. For some, poverty has become a standard disease that was meant to be part of them since childbirth. Other countries have struggled to fight poverty but doing it the wrong way or in the rich man’s perspective, approaching the situation the right way to rename the term poverty and inequality to a better term to reduce the number of political activists coming up in the war against the systems that help them maintain their wealth. Both Fox, Sensoy and Robin approach to the issue of poverty and inequality in America, Canada, and other countries is inclined to the view from the poor man’s side. The biases are somewhat implied based on the way they view inequality status in the nation restricting their approach to how poverty and inequality affect the poor only instead of both the poor and the rich. Sensoy and Robin concentrate primarily on the problems the poor experience and tend to try and make the reader consider the wealthy people in the society as the sole cause of the challenges the poor people face in America. Fox also directs the blame of child to the way inequality has prospered in the nation leaving the rich to gain wealth at the expense of the poor and in return do nothing to improve the lives of the poor parents who they consider as their market and labor force. Indeed, the economic hardship the poor people go through is castrated by the wealthy people in the society through schemes that are designed to maintain them as the rich people in the nation and to keep the poor people poor. According to research conducted by Alvaredo and Leonardo (713), the number of poor people in the country is growing, and social welfare policies are structure not to make the poor people evade poverty but instead to keep the living a miserable, healthy life. Kneebone and Carey (21) criticized the way the employment policies in America are designed as the workers in most industries are left to earn way less than they deserve as the most massive chunk of profits is directed into the pockets of the management board of the companies. Sensoy and Robin analysis of the extent of inequality in America has opened my eyes to the existence of slavery within our set-up with a different name, prison. Alvaredo and Leonardo (769) research indicate that prisoners in America a majorly from the poor and the middle-class families with the poor being the vast majority in most public prisons. Sensoy and Robin try to mention the fact that the rich discovered a new scheme to get cheap labor that the society won’t despite as slavery or against human rights. Indeed, prisoners are known to have very few rights and are considered on most occasions as outcasts in the society. As a result, no one notices any form of mistreatment such working for meager wages for prominent multinational organizations in the name of community service. Fox in his documentary captures the type of life that results in most of the children ending up in correctional centers. Based on his compilation, the best way is not to build more prison but invest in the childhood lives of the children from the low-income families so that they can have a financially stable future away from criminal and drug activities. Some of the questions that arise from the Brandon, Sensory and Robin are: “What are the steps the government is taking to see that even the children from the low-income families have a shot at being rich in future as the children from the affluent families?” Also,: Why spend a massive amount of money to provide relief food and constructing prisons to lock up the poor children when they grow up and steal to survive?”. It is for the government to restrategize their step and direct resources to mechanisms that will end poverty rather than take care of the needy families year after year.
Works Cited
Alvaredo, Facundo, and Leonardo Gasparini. “Recent trends in inequality and poverty in developing countries.” Handbook of income distribution. Vol. 2. Elsevier, 2015. 697-805.
Fox, Brandon. “What Poor Child Is This? Poverty and America’s Children.” Films Media Group, 2011, fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=-1&xtid=48031. Accessed 18 Mar. 2018.
Kneebone, Elizabeth, and Carey A. Nadeau. “The resurgence of concentrated poverty in America: Metropolitan trends in the 2000s.” The new American suburb: Poverty, race, and the economic crisis (2015): 15-38.
Sensoy, Ozlem, and Robin DiAngelo. Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice education (Multicultural Education Series). Teachers College Press, (2017): 154-183.