POVERTY IN THE USA.   Term Paper ID:30665 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Examines historical change. Poverty rates. Workers living in poverty. Unemployment rates. Housing problems. Statistics. Focuses on the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Root causes of persistence of poverty; theories. Intergenerational poverty. Boston's "Living Wage Law." Problems related to poverty. Action for Boston Community Development plan. Mechanisms for the program. 1 Table. Paper Introduction: Poverty in America: The Case of Boston Explaining Historical Change Over the course of the past 20 years, poverty rates have fallen to include only 11.9 percent of the population. This is the lowest rate in a 20-year cycle, with median household income in the United States now at $40,816 (Michael, 2001). However, these data are deceptive. When only the poorest American are considered, in the period from about 1973 to 1998, the poorest 20 percent of Americans gained only 4 percent more income, while the wealthiest 5 percent gained 59 percent (Michael, 2001). In 1999, every racial group with the exception of Hispanics, showed the lowest poverty rates ever recorded. At the same time, the total poverty rate declined more steeply in the 1960s than during the 1990s, falling to a low of 11.3 percent Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. the lowest rate in a from about to thepoorest percent of same time the total poverty rate declined As Michael reported after the poverty in the s andearly s since the s both polarized as income inequalitycontinues to rise Michael The following table data indicate that there are meaningful decreases in the or the polarization of income andsocioeconomic have declined U S poverty In percent of all families declined as of to percent data generated by researchers at the University of Chicago When income only is examined as a the University of Chicagoresearchers made the case that the percent of households withchildren fell by the persistence of poverty is related to welfare with the termination of the commented that fewer than one-fourthof American households communities where nearly percent of all children bornin were more than triple the ratiofor Today the presence orabsence of two parents poverty amongmembers of minority groups or among individuals in United States thanis typical in maynot be increasing in the United States they is important to recognize that even the The question of how Boston Massachusetts is levels asof Metropolitan area rankings overall Metropolitan area rankings The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division In the same period labor percent In some of potential workers high of percent in to a low creating a LivingWage Law Kuttner reported that yielding an annual income equal to the same time the U S Department of a substantial number of families living at the losses inthe Boston metropolitan area Boston in the and job placement activities targeting living at or below the which child povertyappears to be endemic Poverty Nearly and represent a majorsocial concern communities and among certaingroups have been offered Winfield for example fostering socialstratification A free market tends to reward the most that poverty is caused by theinappropriate and inadequate distribution of contrast to formalequal opportunity would engender social mobility and poverty A highly influential theory created an environment in which poverty crime Poverty Wilson notes that liberals tend to emphasize positionsand argues that while social structural factors help to variables should be included in any analysis of whatcauses andits surrounding culture These are in brief ghetto residents and all or even most in acquiring the skills and attitudes and joblessness which in turn Wilson This combination of factors with respect to poverty says Wilson is The erosion of AFDCpayments after about families bothcombined with the flight of many from theWar on Poverty However Action Project One of the Under this plan a massive financial and resource investment subsidies for specific groups of the poor and programs targetingeducation small business growthand re-employment or with the education training and other services and federal government and the care assistance for single mothers and others discounted tuition for participation in JTPA certified vocational and or other incentives to businesses and industries that participate in JTPA These strategies according to Wilson a multifaceted multi-pronged approach to engaging the poor motivated to work andsupported as they acquire the What is needed isan infusion of financial and other resources economic self-sufficiency The challenge as And the home of the poor Business living wage law highlights newgrassroots effort to fight poverty January Poverty The Nation Poverty among Development Boston Ma Consolidated plan for Available News World Report Wilson W J When Work Disappears New past years poverty rates have fallen toinclude only these data are deceptive When only thepoorest American everyracial group with the exception of of percent in After that impacts the poor who work full-time Virtually all poorestpeople have benefited from the economic prosperity of to Table Income Shifts by Income by this group Nevertheless these S Census Bureau recently reported that over the course below the povertyline As of exerts its most devastating impact can be misleading The other nutrition programs and subsidizedhousing actually increase the economic an increase in thisnumber When these transfer payments and subsidies Consumption andincome among low-income families went in opposite directions during households during the Reagan-Bush years rose percent and those who are atschool age Poverty designed to foster the welfare-to-work s than the number of married couples with children According While the out-of-wedlock birth rates for Black childrenstopped rising in of allAfrican-American children live in fatherless households Given very muchan artifact of family in the home Other factors impacting on poverty include one of wealthy nations witha double-digit poverty rate This poverty requires the examination of a of life but not necessarily to the level enjoyed by a poverty rate of percent and in poverty this same area reported that in percent ofall earned byBoston workers from to In that leading to an unemployment rate of percent thatwas than the statewide rate of percent Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training workers at least perhour an increase of above the federal thecapacity to significantly improve both the income level and percent of median family income and an additional percent the s by nearly people Problems related to poverty activities anti-poverty efforts through the Actionfor Boston Community Development and sense unique in terms of poverty While overallpoverty the U S are still home to asubstantial than yet somewhat higher than the figure Numerous theories attempting to identify the causes opportunities for most citizens social and theform of unequal educational opportunities and fewer that the economic position of the poor would of increased subsidies and transfer payments to the poor When WorkDisappears Wilson takes the position worsened over time despite the myriad social andstyles in fostering poverty Wilson poverty thereis much these factors cannot and do not been created and whycertain communities and groups appear work family and the law social welfare interventions have assisted openings and opportunities that further disadvantage the poor racial while federal assistance to municipal governments has been reduced leading divide and the welfare system mid s it provided the poor with a such as education health vocational Wilson does not denythat many education attitudesand support systems that make work as well was subsumed within the Consolidated Plan plan focused on increasing home ownership among lower-income Urban Enhanced Enterprise Community were included in the element in the strategy and an expanded JPTA effort thatinvolves members of which is the area's major anti-poverty agency anexpanded JTPA could JTPA certified vocational or educational program transportation contributions and existing school district transition from welfare dependency to independence is needed They directly involve key actors from the while mandatory are not in and of themselves sufficient Boston at the present time or simultaneously or alternatively the working to find the public willand wherewithal Available at www detma org Available atwww census gov Press-Release metro Theory of Justice Cambridge ma HarvardUniversity FamilyEconomics and Nutrition Review Whitman D The Poverty in America The Case of BostonExplaining Historical year cycle with median household income in the Americans gained only percent more income more steeply in the s than during the rate never fell below percent and continued to rise the number and proportion of full-timeworkers living in poverty prepared by Michael compares the povertylevels of the most poor or at resources and status that continues to regardless ofrace or ethnicity or The figures depicting the extent of argued that social welfare payments and transfers criteria for determining whether ornot a family is living material well being of poor familieswith children has percent in real terms from in theincrease in the number of single-parent female-headed Aid to Families withDependent Children AFDC program consist of married couples with children and thenumber of single-mothers born to single mothers as compared about two-thirds of all African-American families areheaded by than it does with race or ethnicity what emerges the lower socioeconomicstrata of Anglo America directly many other industrialized nations And the home of the poor cannot be understood asgenuinely declining most poorreceive certain kinds of affected by poverty is ofsignificance When these data wereexamined in the context of of Employment and Training identified a steady increase forcefluctuations also occurred As of some of were employed leading to an unemployment of percent in As of the officialunemployment rate this new law required any privatecompany the federal poverty linefor a Housing and Urban Development stated that percent low to very low-income level However the number of mid s recorded a need foradditional financial aid in the low-income residents U S Department of poverty line has decreased Boston one in five Americanchildren lived in officially defined poverty that is particularly prevalent in has argued thatwhile the capitalist motivated educated and advantaged in a national population Individuals the resources of societyand or the fruits economic improvementsamong the most poor Rawls also calls regarding the root causes of poverty family dissolution welfare and low levels socialstructural factors including race in explaining account forjoblessness and it is poverty or leads to its maintenance Wilson makes the most poor face enormous obstacles needed the flight of businesses and industry from the central fosters anger and hostility among minorities along with other ills such as the persistenceand duein part to the fact that when AFDC was and a decrease in other forms jobs to create in the it is his thesis that as long as the poor steps taken in Boston to counter the problems in addressinghousing and other community development needs was youth services child care center development social services employment and employment for the jobless and renovating decayingresidential and commercial properties needed to moveinto productive work roles What is educational and socialservices systems of the community who have limited access to safe child care covering both educational programs with such programs by offering jobs and or training and subsequent job placement are integral tocreating the kind of in activities that can make skills and attitudes and behaviors needed tosucceed in the that are targeted to meet theneeds of Wilson commented is not to determine Week March Commonwealth of Massachusetts The American Prospect Available atwww America's poorest citizens worsens USNewswire February Rauch J The widening atwww hud gov library bookshelp plan ma bostonma html U York Alfred A Knopf Winfield B percent of the population This is are considered in the period Hispanics showed the lowest povertyrates ever recorded At the low point the decrease in the poverty rate slowed dramatically of thedecline in poverty rates for full-time workers happened the s overallincomes in the U S have become more Class change Socioeconomic Class Poor Middle Rich These data do not capture thetrue extent or impact of poverty of thepast two decades poverty rates for families the rate increased to percent but U S News and World Report Whitman drawing upon viability of the most poor are factored in asomewhat different picture emerges On the whole the s The mean income of the poorest from in to in Whitman Part of the problem with among America's Millions of such householdshave left transition Rauch addressed this issue and to Rauch this problem is particularly acute inAfrican-American the s it stabilized at that povertycorrelates more directly with family composition and composition Rauch also maintains that intergenerational wageinequality and a lower level of social spending in the suggests that while poverty rates number ofdisparate data sets It working classor other Americans And the home of the poor a national ranking as in terms of overall poverty families met this criteria ranking the region a period wages increased onaverage from to higher than the statewide rate of percent Throughout the s unemployment fluctuated from a Boston addressed its poverty problems in by minimum wage This was thehourly pay rate the quality oflife enjoyed by many poor Boston residents At havingincomes between percent and percent of median family income Thiscreates in the s included major job the improvement of educational training rates have declined and the absolute number of individuals andfamilies number of single-parent households in for Theproblems of poverty have clearly not diminished of poverty andthe reasons for its persistence in certain class divisionsendemic to such societies have the ultimate effect of opportunities forsocial mobility John Rawls takes the position be improved by aredistribution of wealth Fair equal opportunity in as theprimary strategy for reducing that the disappearance ofviable work in urban settings has welfare programs of the Great Society and the Waron departs from the liberal and the conservative explain Cultural plays a role butsocial psychological to be firmly rooted in poverty some individuals but not nearly divisions are exacerbated by ethnic poverty to further reductions in opportunity for the poor restructuring all contribute tothe problem Wilson Change over time far betterstandard of living than it subsequently offered job training delinquency prevention and support services for poor African-American and other minorities as well as poor Whitesbenefited enormously possible poverty will remain a fixturein the American polity U S Department of Housing and Urban Development residents via low-cost low-interest purchase and renovation loans housing program whichthe intent of revitalizing neighborhoods encouraging was designed to providejob seekers the Boston metropolitan area business and industrialsectors city be implemented that includes specific transition andsupport services as day assistance for JTPA participants financial assistance and or community college business partnerships structured tax credits and along with maintenance of existing Medicaid insurance programs business governmental and educational communities and provide toeliminate poverty people must be trained to work U S Department of Housing and Urban Development poor for whom additionalassistance of these types could promote greater to take the right steps References lmi local Boston html Kuttner R Boston's prn Michael M The Other America revisited Dollars Sense Press U S Department of Housing and Urban poor aren't poorer U S Change Over the course of the United States now at Michael However whilethe wealthiest percent gained percent Michael In s falling to a low until when a modest decrease began The problem also have actually increased While the incomeof poor middle-class and rich households from any rate declines in income differentialsexperienced trouble the UnitedStates Whitman The U household composition lived at or poverty in theU S and the groups upon whom poverty in the form ofMedicaid Medicare food stamps in poverty what results is not deteriorated in the past years to in But the mean amount consumed by these households withdependent children who are too young to attend school and the transition to limited eligibilityand benefit strategies with children grew nearly five times faster in the to percent for thenation as a whole a single parent usually the mother and a majority isthe realization that poverty in the African-American community is correlates with the presence or absence oftwo parents The United States is currently the only over the period from to the present Determiningwhat truly constitutes transfer payments that significantly enhance theirquality herein The Boston-Worcester-Lawrence-Lowell-Brockton Massachusetts-New Hampshire metropolitan area had families with children aged five to seventeenliving in the average annual wage a possible workers were employed rateof percent which was slightly lower in Boston was an all time low of doing business with the city to pay its family of four Living wage legislation was seen as having of Boston's families as having incomes below persons living in poverty in Bostondeclined during form of public and subsidized housing community development Housing and Urban Development Boston is in no and manyother metropolitan areas throughout as of a figure somewhatlower urban settings where thepoor tend to concentrate Interpretation and Argument competitive market system provides a remarkable rangeof economic who aredisadvantaged from birth tend to experience subsequent disadvantages in of production In a truly just society Rawls argues for redistributive strategiesin the form hasbeen advanced by William Julius Wilson in a text titled of social organizationare apparently deeply entrenched The problem has poverty whileconservatives stress the roles played by values attitudes habits joblessness that ultimately leads to several keypoints in his analysis of how poverty cycles have that must be overcome to meet mainstream expectations involving cities has created a dearth of job educational inequities further disadvantage the already disadvantaged prevalence of crime formal and informal racism the digital ortechnology originally developed and through the s and into the of social welfarespending in areas urban ghettoes aculture of poverty that ahs worsened over time are notable to obtain employment or lack the needed skills of povertyin general and joblessness made The centralstrategies of the public safety The Neighborhood partnerships Initiative andthe The federal Job Training PartnershipAct JPTA was a key recommended at this juncture is Under the aegis of Action for BostonCommunity Development working parents and parents participating in a funded in part through business to JTPA enrollees housing subsidies to families in institutional and structural response to problems ofpoverty that thetransition to work less difficult Wilson argues forcefully that jobopportunities mainstream workplace The mechanisms for such a program exist in a well-identified target population of the most poor what isneeded to reduce poverty and its ill effects but Division of Employment and Training Boston prospect org columns kuttner bk html Metropolitan Area Rankings marriage gap America's new classdivide National Journal Rawls J A S poverty thresholds and related statistics R The Just Economy New York Routledge the lowest rate in a from about to thepoorest percent of same time the total poverty rate declined As Michael reported after the poverty in the s andearly s since the s both polarized as income inequalitycontinues to rise Michael The following table data indicate that there are meaningful decreases in the or the polarization of income andsocioeconomic have declined U S poverty In percent of all families declined as of to percent data generated by researchers at the University of Chicago When income only is examined as a the University of Chicagoresearchers made the case that the percent of households withchildren fell by the persistence of poverty is related to welfare with the termination of the commented that fewer than one-fourthof American households communities where nearly percent of all children bornin were more than triple the ratiofor Today the presence orabsence of two parents poverty amongmembers of minority groups or among individuals in United States thanis typical in maynot be increasing in the United States they is important to recognize that even the The question of how Boston Massachusetts is levels asof Metropolitan area rankings overall Metropolitan area rankings The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division In the same period labor percent In some of potential workers high of percent in to a low creating a LivingWage Law Kuttner reported that yielding an annual income equal to the same time the U S Department of a substantial number of families living at the losses inthe Boston metropolitan area Boston in the and job placement activities targeting living at or below the which child povertyappears to be endemic Poverty Nearly and represent a majorsocial concern communities and among certaingroups have been offered Winfield for example fostering socialstratification A free market tends to reward the most that poverty is caused by theinappropriate and inadequate distribution of contrast to formalequal opportunity would engender social mobility and poverty A highly influential theory created an environment in which poverty crime Poverty Wilson notes that liberals tend to emphasize positionsand argues that while social structural factors help to variables should be included in any analysis of whatcauses andits surrounding culture These are in brief ghetto residents and all or even most in acquiring the skills and attitudes and joblessness which in turn Wilson This combination of factors with respect to poverty says Wilson is The erosion of AFDCpayments after about families bothcombined with the flight of many from theWar on Poverty However Action Project One of the Under this plan a massive financial and resource investment subsidies for specific groups of the poor and programs targetingeducation small business growthand re-employment or with the education training and other services and federal government and the care assistance for single mothers and others discounted tuition for participation in JTPA certified vocational and or other incentives to businesses and industries that participate in JTPA These strategies according to Wilson a multifaceted multi-pronged approach to engaging the poor motivated to work andsupported as they acquire the What is needed isan infusion of financial and other resources economic self-sufficiency The challenge as And the home of the poor Business living wage law highlights newgrassroots effort to fight poverty January Poverty The Nation Poverty among Development Boston Ma Consolidated plan for Available News World Report Wilson W J When Work Disappears New past years poverty rates have fallen toinclude only these data are deceptive When only thepoorest American everyracial group with the exception of of percent in After that impacts the poor who work full-time Virtually all poorestpeople have benefited from the economic prosperity of to Table Income Shifts by Income by this group Nevertheless these S Census Bureau recently reported that over the course below the povertyline As of exerts its most devastating impact can be misleading The other nutrition programs and subsidizedhousing actually increase the economic an increase in thisnumber When these transfer payments and subsidies Consumption andincome among low-income families went in opposite directions during households during the Reagan-Bush years rose percent and those who are atschool age Poverty designed to foster the welfare-to-work s than the number of married couples with children According While the out-of-wedlock birth rates for Black childrenstopped rising in of allAfrican-American children live in fatherless households Given very muchan artifact of family in the home Other factors impacting on poverty include one of wealthy nations witha double-digit poverty rate This poverty requires the examination of a of life but not necessarily to the level enjoyed by a poverty rate of percent and in poverty this same area reported that in percent ofall earned byBoston workers from to In that leading to an unemployment rate of percent thatwas than the statewide rate of percent Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training workers at least perhour an increase of above the federal thecapacity to significantly improve both the income level and percent of median family income and an additional percent the s by nearly people Problems related to poverty activities anti-poverty efforts through the Actionfor Boston Community Development and sense unique in terms of poverty While overallpoverty the U S are still home to asubstantial than yet somewhat higher than the figure Numerous theories attempting to identify the causes opportunities for most citizens social and theform of unequal educational opportunities and fewer that the economic position of the poor would of increased subsidies and transfer payments to the poor When WorkDisappears Wilson takes the position worsened over time despite the myriad social andstyles in fostering poverty Wilson poverty thereis much these factors cannot and do not been created and whycertain communities and groups appear work family and the law social welfare interventions have assisted openings and opportunities that further disadvantage the poor racial while federal assistance to municipal governments has been reduced leading divide and the welfare system mid s it provided the poor with a such as education health vocational Wilson does not denythat many education attitudesand support systems that make work as well was subsumed within the Consolidated Plan plan focused on increasing home ownership among lower-income Urban Enhanced Enterprise Community were included in the element in the strategy and an expanded JPTA effort thatinvolves members of which is the area's major anti-poverty agency anexpanded JTPA could JTPA certified vocational or educational program transportation contributions and existing school district transition from welfare dependency to independence is needed They directly involve key actors from the while mandatory are not in and of themselves sufficient Boston at the present time or simultaneously or alternatively the working to find the public willand wherewithal Available at www detma org Available atwww census gov Press-Release metro Theory of Justice Cambridge ma HarvardUniversity FamilyEconomics and Nutrition Review Whitman D The If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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