"Poverty" (Position Paper)

“POVERTY”
(POSITION PAPER)
You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
” (John 12:8 from the New Living Translation). Even Jesus Christ said that the
poor will always live among us, and that POVERY will always be an issue in our
society.
Expenses in our society, behavior problems and welfare all keep the ones
that are in poverty. Firstly, I believe that expenses are too high in our society. The
poor struggle to survive in this economy when food and clothing expenses are too
high. There are not enough places to shop that are affordable for people with a
low income.
If one wants to buy nice clothes for a funeral or wedding one has to pay
almost a hundred dollars for a whole outfit. These prices do not need to be so
high. It does not cost nearly that much to make the clothing, stores are only
increasing the prices to fit the economy. Meanwhile, there are hardly any jobs
paying more than minimum wage, which a single mother with six kids needs. A
single parent cannot support his or her family with a job that pays only minimum
wage, especially when housing and food and clothing are so expense. It is very
hard for a single parent to find suitable and affordable housing when they usually
have many kids. Low income housing needs to be more affordable and have more
than two rooms for bigger families.
Furniture expenses, foods, and basic needs also too high; families in poverty
sometimes cannot even afford more than one bed (if even one) because they are
so expensive. I think that our needy economy is one of the main problems that
cause poverty and sustain it. I believe that in order for child poverty to end in our
society has to lower expenses to make them more affordable for everyone.
Secondly, I believe that behavioral and mental problems keep people in poverty.
From a psychologist’s point of view, the pattern of poverty in a family is like the
circle of life. It starts when generations after generations in a family are poor.
Abuse, drugs and alcohol lead the next generations in having the same behaviors
creating the cycle to continue.
When a child is abused and grows up around drugs and alcohol, they grow
up to either believe that it is alright to behave in those ways or just exert those
behaviors because that’s what they were shown and are used to. If a child grows
up in one of these homes they often do not feel loved or have self-worth
therefore they need some other kind of satisfaction like drugs or alcohol. They
may also need to spend money on those foolish things, or even simply splurge on
clothes and food because they need a feeling of self-worth and satisfaction. In the
psychological mind set of poverty, behaviors and mental problems keep families
in poverty, and these behavioral problems are one of the main reasons why I
believe that child poverty will not end anytime soon. Lastly, I believe that going on
welfare will not end poverty. Simply giving people money will not solve the
problem of poverty. Firstly, the money is not enough.
The money people receive from welfare is not enough to be out of

poverty, it only covers ones basic needs. Once someone gets a job and there
income increases a little, that money is deducted from their welfare check and
they do not get as much. This makes it very hard for someone to get ahead and
save money when it is only enough to survive and then you do not get as much
when you get a job. Secondly, some people spend the welfare money on other
things like drugs, alcohol or other bad or unimportant things. Therefore the
money is not useful for them anyways and does not bring them out of poverty
because they use the money in a bad way. Some people are big spenders and use
the money for electronics, or unneeded clothes so the money is not really
benefitting them in bringing them out of poverty. The welfare money from the
government is not really eliminating poverty; therefore I believe it is another
reason why child poverty will not end in the near future.
Poverty is a huge issue in our society. The Government stated that their
goal was to end child poverty by the year 2000, however it is still an issue today. I
feel that poverty will continue to be an issue and this social change will not
happen because of high expenses, behavior problems, and welfare concerns.
These are the main reasons why this change will not happen in my opinion, but I
also believe it is because we as a society are not helping the poor out enough. We
should be supporting them with money, food, and shelter, and creating more
services to help them. We also need to raise awareness about poverty in our
society, as many people do not even realize it is happening in our own backyard.

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“POVERTY”

The money people receive from welfare is not enough to be out of

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