The Never Ending Cycle

The Never Ending Cycle

Everyone has heard someone comment on poverty in the United States. Some people say, "the poor have only themselves to blame for their situation." Or, "why don't they get a job?" This is the problem with society today; the different levels of the class structure have grown so far apart from one another they cannot even relate to one another. People look down on the poor as unmotivated and lazy when, in fact, it is not their fault, but the fault of a society that does not value people of wage labor. In our society today poverty is a never-ending cycle that feeds off itself, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. There are three main factors that can be brought up when talking about the cycle of poverty; education, nutrition, and redistribution of wealth. Without a strong foundation in all of these categories, a society will never have a class system without large gaps, and with gaps in a society come class antagonisms. Society needs to work together in order to strengthen the three factors so the working class can escape the cycle of poverty and have economic growth.

Health is one of the most important factors in the cycle of poverty. Without a clean bill of health a laborer is no good. The health problems of wage-laborers stem from the environments they live and work in. If a low wage worker cannot afford to keep the electricity on in his or her own house, he or she may catch a cold from not having heat or from not having a stove in which to cook a hot meal. A cold could put the worker out of work for a few days, crippling their financial situation. But the common cold is not the only health issue that stands in the way of wage-laborers. Most wage-based jobs value the hands of the workers more than their minds, so if a worker was to lose the ability of an arm he or she would be at a serious disadvantage. This setback could cost the laborer and their family a lot. It may mean that the children do not get gifts this Christmas or, even worse, not have a home at all.

This can be devastating to children who are the most affected by poverty. Thirteen million children in the United States live in households that do not have adequate food (About Child Hunger). If parents do not have the economical resources to raise a family problems can arise. First of all, the lack of nutritional intake can cause problems with the delivery of a new born child. Malnutrition is the cause of death for 53 percent of the children under five that die (Global Health Council). If the child is lucky enough to survive the birth and the first five years they are still subject to the effects of malnutrition. Many children are born with birth defects or low mental capabilities because of the lack of essential vitamins. A hungry child has a harder time learningin school, shorter attention span, and suffers more absences due to illness (About Child Hunger). This feeds the vicious cycle because workers are not valued if they have a handicap of any kind. In this society only the strong and healthy can have economic prosperity.

One may ask: well if someone is not born with a birth defect and they attend school, can't they pull themselves out of the poverty cycle? The answer to this is no, not necessarily. Let us look at the facts; education is the key to economic growth in America. The average college graduate makes about one million dollars more in their lifetime than the average high school graduate (Day and Newburger). The simple answer would be to go to secondary school than, right? Wrong; for low income families it is hard to finance the money in order to put someone through a four year college. The average room and board of a four year public college has increased 9.8% since last year, to $10,636 (collegeboard.com). College is hard to afford when the average income for one person is about $30,000 (Income and Poverty). Without an education, a person is less likely to obtain a high paying job with good benefits. This means that a person that cannot afford a secondary education will be stuck in the cycle of poverty because they will never have the opportunity to make enough money to break the cycle.

The problem with poverty is more deeply rooted than just the decision to attend school. Poverty also is a factor of something the poor have absolutely no control over, the redistribution or dispersion of money. This is the deciding factor in how the classes are formed. If the government does not redistribute the wealth evenly throughout the class system, gaps appear. This is exactly what is happening in today's society. Under the new policies of our president the richest one percent have taken a 25 percent income tax cut while the poorest 20 percent have taken a 1.2 percent tax cut (Bush Tax Cut Plan). It is said that the rich will spend their money on goods and services throughout the economy, essentially "trickling down" or giving the money to the poor through businesses, but it has not worked to date. From this theory we find that the cycle continues; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So where does all this tax money go; shouldn't it be given back to the poor? In the poor's eyes, yes it should, but in the rich people's eyes, no it shouldn't and so it does not.