Poverty in America Essay

Many people want to blame the government and their short comings for the reasons that affect their upward mobility, but indigent people must fully evaluate their negative decisions, and their consequences, that have made poverty a perpetuating cycle in not only their lives, but their children’s. Chiefly, bad decisions like, teen pregnancy, lack of education and complacency keeps poverty revolving, currently, and for future generations. The government does have an obligation to help the poor and needy in America, but as individuals, people have an obligation to help themselves in their own pursuit of happiness and success. To help end poverty, people should assess the issues of the generation before, so that the next generation has a better future. .To begin with, one of the major causes of poverty is a person’s decision to drop out of school. Timothy Eagan, a correspondent with the New York Times, reported in his journal article, â€Å"No Degree, and No Way Back to the Middle†, that a man in his fifties with a college degree is expected to make 81 percent more than a man without one. Years prior to it was 52 percent. Without education people are more susceptible to undesirable lifestyles then those who graduate. Besides the dilemma of having no education, dropouts face a number of challenges that could have possibly been avoided if they had decided to finish schooling. First, the non- graduate has challenges obtaining employment, consequently, they engage in criminal activity. As a result of criminal activity, non-graduates tend to end up in the penal system, and are then stigmatized against future employment. With the job market being so scarce and work wages so low, those with no diploma or degree will have no chance of coming out of poverty. In addition, low income people are often eligible for assistance, such as reduced cost housing, food stamps, child care and insurance. These programs are managed by the state, and the amount of assistance and how it is supplied varies according to income and family size . Though these programs are meant to help temporarily, poor people decide to become comfortable with not having to do too much. Government assistance helps, but it also allows people to make a choice to become lazy and unwilling to work. They then, find ways to scheme the system and boast about it. The government may not offer a lot per individual, but something to be thought about is this, if more â€Å"needy† people used government assistance programs for what they were set in place for, instead of robbing it, there would be more money allocated for those needed it, instead of those who are just used to having it. An indigent person becoming complacent with what they are given keeps them right where they are. Finally, the revolving door that most perpetuates poverty is a teens decision to have a baby. Babies having babies before they have education and experience put their children at risk of having the same hardships they’ve had to endure . Once a child has a child they are then faced with financial, emotional and physical limitations that they have not been able to yet master themselves. The fathers of these babies are often absent and in most cases too young to provide for a child, which leaves the mother looking to welfare as a means for support. When babies arrive mothers are forced to put everything, including school, on hold. And because child care is an ongoing job, young mommies don’t make to college until later on in life, if at all. Once teen pregnancy rates are lowered, a drastic change will be noticed in the poverty rates. In the journal article, Class Matters, David Leonhardt, a correspondent for the New York Times, interviewed Any Blevins, a southwest Virginia native. Blevins stated, a decade after the fac,t that the biggest decision he regrets, was not going to college. All because he was complacent with what he had at the time. He now has a child and a wife that he can barely support. Even with having a high school diploma and waiting to have his son, Lucas, at more appropriate age, Blevins now sees how his decisions in the past have greatly impacted his present and his family’s future. More parents need to make their children aware of how bad choices at an early age, will affect them later on in life, if their hope is for their children to do better than they did. Everyone makes mistakes, but some have such a profound impact that they effect the generations to come.