Causes and Effects of Poverty in America: Analytical Essay

Essay

Summirize the author’s main idea and key supporting points

Evaluate the quality of the argument (click on the link for guidance)

APPLY the source, noting 1) degree of usefulness for your project and 2) the degree to which you agree with the author and/or how the information is helping you refine your position

Food

The racial and socioeconomic gap that has been produced by these market chains has established an unhealthy lifestyle that has proved detrimental to the poor and minorities across the United States.

Coming from a panel of scientists, the facts they provide correlating these food deserts to rise in health issues are viable, however, there is a large bias towards larger food markets and corporations. For example, pointing fingers at systemic racism with minimal proof could be seen as problematic, but the statistics shown do bring light into the real issue affecting lower-income families as well as minorities.

1. A must use source because it provides key facts and data to back our thoughts on the cycle of poverty seen through the food systems and how even the most unseen issues can have major consequences.
2. We agree because we have seen in life the determinants of a lack to quality food, and how it ultimately plays into our lives and our achievements.

What Drives

The cycle of poverty is an endless struggle in which the affected are born into impoverished families, and are then unable to escape the cycle because of a lack of education, debt, broken family life, and unemployment.

The publisher is a nonprofit organization, suggesting a degree of reliability in that we know that there is no motivation of financial gain behind the article, as there might be from an article on a news site. Furthermore, the article is full of solid statistics, taken from official government databases. However, one could argue that the article is shallow in its analysis since it is written in order to persuade common people to invest in the organization; it is not a particularly scientific or in-depth article.

1. A must use source because it provides statistics directly relating to the cycle of poverty in the United States and what causes it, which will help us to further analyze how it relates to the American Dream.
2. We agree because the cycle of poverty is evident in our lives. We see families that are poor and remain poor from generation to generation as the family members develop numerous issues due to their poverty.

Fessler

The town of Reading in Pennsylvania was the most impoverished city in the United States when the article was written. It addresses recurring themes in the poverty cycle including lack of education or work, trouble finding childcare, or wanting a better future for children. In 2010, nearly half of the Reading population was below the U.S. poverty line.

NPR is considered a credible source which delivers news on a number of different topics. Some things that are of note is that the article does not necessarily present facts clearly but it does on the side of the page. Also only women were interviewed. Hyperfocus on the impact on children not necessarily adults or communities as a whole.

1. A must use source because it contains facts that not only support our viewpoint but also has sentimental stories behind the facts.
2. We agree because we are aware that this problem isn’t isolated. It happens all over the United States and has happened since the birth of our country. We recognize this and agree with the method to use sentiment to impact our audience on a deeper level.

What Happened

Food stamps became harder to obtain in West Virginia and families found it increasingly more difficult everyday to supply enough food for their families and themselves.

We completely agree with the author’s argument. The author explains how crucial it is for the working poor to have access to food stamps. What we thought was interesting is that the poor do not have a consistent work schedule. Transportation and timing is difficult, especially for the working poor who live out in the country of West Virginia, where job opportunities are only available further into town. At the end of the argument, the author explains how if West Virginia is going to make it harder for the poor to access food stamps because of work inconsistency, they should also provide a program with easier transportation and jobs.

1. We think because the author provides a strong argument on how important and crucial it is for people in poverty to have access to food sources provided by the government, it will help our project argue the effectiveness of governmental programs for poverty.
2. We agree with the author because we are aware that food is limited for the poor. Especially if a person/family is in the inbetween where they are considered not qualified for food stamps because they can’t work enough/do not work enough, or work enough but not enough for food or transportation and food stamps. Thus this is related to the cycle of poverty as people are stuck with not enough resources.

Go

This is a map created by the USDA ERS as a way to show the volume of accessibility that Americans have to sustainable and healthy food markets. The constant is the lower-income rate for citizens, and the different keys of the map shows the distance lower-income rate families have to these markets, showing the prevalence of “food deserts” that exist across the country.

With this being a national database, there is an obvious bias towards displaying the collected data unto the public. The lower-income rate being the constant rate rather than other socioeconomic classes shows subjected favoritism towards the lower class in this data rather than other groups. But seeing that this data is about accessibility within the nation, the bias can be better understood.

1. A must use source because it provides factual depictions of the food deserts that exist within the nation. This map shows how far Americans live from sustainable markets and how many are affected in areas due to this.
2. We agree because it is known that food deserts are legit and have a crippling hold on the lower income houses of America, by seeing this we can infer why it exists, and relating further back to our initial beliefs on what the dream truly is.

The Effect

A major part of poverty is a lack of education. Impoverished children are much less likely to finish high school than children in households above the poverty line. This lack of education is a large factor in the financial struggles of those in poverty.

The article is reliable in that it cites strong supporting statistics from official databases. However, the article does display a very clear bias towards garnering sympathy for the children and support for their program. This is clear at the end of the article, in which an advertisement for their program is listed as a way to end the cycle of poverty. Moreover, one could say that the data seems to be cherry picked and fail to fully address the issue at hand, not exploring all aspects of the problem.

1. A must use source because it addresses one of the key factors of the cycle of poverty, education, providing supporting statistics and taking a deeper look into the issue.
2. We agree because education is very frequently needed for success, both for financial success and familial success, and a lack of education could definitely lead to continued poverty.

Holt

A sixth of the U.S. population is “food insecure.” These dire levels of hunger have a root cause, located in the political economy of a global, corporate food regime. Because of its political location between reformist calls for food security and radical calls for food sovereignty, food justice is pivotally placed to influence the direction of food-systems change.

The article isn’t necessarily advocating for one idea or the other and this is clear in the language being used by the authors. It seems as they want the reader to form their own opinion after being given facts. Of course the facts which are provided are chosen by the author and you have to account for that. One could argue that the facts are used to emphasize the role of Food Justice in America today while ignoring the “other” data.

1. This source will be imperative to setting up the background knowledge for our project as it touches on all of the ideas which inspired our decision to choose the topic of food inequality as a result of poverty. Not only that but it also provides useful facts for our documentary.
2. I agree wholeheartedly with what the authors of this article are expressing. The ideas they are covering have been proven time and time again and not only do they analyze problems but they also cover potential solutions.

Poverty

Historical issues vs current policy. Details of the extreme poverty in Lowndes County, Alabama, this article argues how poverty is determinant by race. The extreme poor in certain counties of American are almost as detrimental as the conditions in which people live in Sudan. Working out what issues are caused by history and what are a result of current policies also contributes to the analytical paralysis of policymakers. The yawning gap in poverty levels of blacks and whites partly results from the centuries of discrimination faced by black Americans before the civil-rights era. The reduction of racial disparities in poverty will have to be done through race-neutral means. As policymakers grapple with how to do that, enterprise and philanthropy are trying to fill the gap.

This article can be reliable for our group because a crucial factor to the cycle of poverty is race. Along with race is immigration and the struggles to begin a sufficient and stable life. This article also compares the upward mobility entitled by race. How others get a head start in the social hierarchy of American just based on their race. This article also is reliable in that it explains how the welfare system is helpful to the poor. Implicit benefits for minorities are difficult enough to create and maintain. An explicitly race-based programme such as reparations would then attract even more condemnation.

1. This source will be helpful to our group as we begin to break down how governmental systems and programs are resourceful to the cycle of poverty in America. Also insight on how race is related to poverty and how it can be misunderstood.
2. We agree with this source because race is a huge factor to poverty and level of social status in America. It is important to understand how race affects certain levels of income/amounts of resources available.

The 17% of children in the U.S. are impoverished. The number of kids living below the poverty line has fluctuated around the same level since 1969, according to the Pew Research Center. The problem of poverty in the U.S. is systemic. Nisha patel claims that generation after generation of people who are born into poverty remain stuck in the cycle. She goes on to explain how where a child is born (poor/not poor), impacts their future upward mobility/opportunity. Gender, race, immigrations status also is impactful on determining whether the child will or will not continue to be stuck in the cycle of poverty.

This argument is very strong along the lines of race and gender and its relevance to the cycle of poverty in America. How some Americans are born into poverty despite their “genetic code,” that their “zip code” is what’s also a strong factoring in determining the level of success a person may or may not obtain in their future. Another piece of Patel’s argument that is helpful to our project is the level of difficulty a person/family in poverty has to go through in order to have access to certain public programs. There are a lot of rules and obstacles one must go through in attempting to supply resources for themselves or their families.

This NPR interview is helpful to our project as we are given an opinion on child poverty and what factors apply to creating a generation after generation cycle of poverty based on gender, race, and zip code. — We agree with this source because Patel provides a straightforward argument over child poverty and explains the problems within the poverty systems of America.