Poverty in the United States

When one thinks of poverty often the mental picture that comes to mind is of single parent on welfare, who is dependent and unemployment. The impact of poverty, the destruction of crime and stigmatization of the violence on the children is more devastating and irreversible than the miseducation and illiteracy that most often accompanies poverty. There are many factors that contribute towards poverty but the ones with the most impact are government corruption, crime, substance abuse and a lack of education.

Government plays the most important role in the development of a country and whether or not the people of the society are well taken care of. So when corruption becomes part of a government the effects become disastrous especially for the ones who deserve it the least, the children. The children are our future, “yet one out of five children live in poverty; an estimated twelve million children”. When there is an economic recession, stagnant wages, layoffs, and rising unemployment coupled with skyrocketing housing prices push more and more working families onto the streets or into temporary shelters. In many cities the number of homeless families is the highest that analysts have seen in a decade. There were nine thousand homeless families in New York City in 2003 (an increase of 40 percent since 2002)

Does crime cause poverty, or does poverty cause crime? Whatever the situation there is no doubt that there is more crime amongst poverty stricken communities than any other in the United States. When people any people lose hope, when poverty and despair is the only view of the future, generally crime is the result. Crime is either inflicted to the family directly or indirectly. Crime can be an act of desperation of not having what one wants or a way of life that one gets accustomed to since childhood.

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