Poverty is when you can’t financially support yourself. It’s when you don’t have enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. According to census.gov in 2020 there were 37.2 million people in poverty in America. That is 3.3 million more than the previous year. Poverty is a big issue in America and it’s not getting the attention that it should be getting. The American people should be doing more to decrease the amount of people in government. It might seem like there is nothing we can do for them, but there is. If people come together and talk about it and brainstorm ways that can help those people in poverty then a solution can be found. Although It’s not something that is easy and can be done in a short amount of time, it can still be done. It could take years to even get started on finding a way to help them but they deserve to have our help. Most of the people in poverty don’t have a good source of income or they’re not in the right mental state to do the everyday tasks Americans do. Some of these people don’t have a choice and have to live in poverty.
Some facts to know about poverty is that 12.9 percent of those 37 million people in poverty were women and 10.6 percent were men. The poverty rate for people living with a disability was 25.7 percent in 2018. 16.2 percent of children lived in poverty in 2018 and 9.7 percent of seniors lived in poverty. The most ethnicity that lives in poverty are Native Americans with 25.4 percent in 2018. Then it was Black and Hispanic and White and Asian were at the bottom having the least amount of people in poverty. You can find more information and facts about poverty at https://www.povertyusa.org/facts. There is a high amount of people in poverty. The amount of money that it takes to be able to live in the world comfortably is way too high and the statistics of poverty prove that.
Some things that can possibly prevent a high amount of poverty is to create decent jobs that pay enough money to meet a family’s needs. Most jobs in America are not good whether they treat their employees bad, pay very little or anything else. A lot of people in America hate their job and are only showing up everyday because they have to in order to pay for everything. On top of that they don’t even get paid a good amount of money. There are people who work hard every day for hours and hours to only get paid a certain amount of money that doesn’t even meet the amount needed in order to live comfortably. Another way can be to make housing more affordable and accessible to people. If the amount of money being put into a house is lowered then that extra money that would be needed for the house can be used for food and clothes and to support people’s kids and other necessities that they need for themselves.
Poverty is a big issue in America and the amount of people living in poverty should not be that high. When I go around Holyoke and see the amount of people who are homeless and living in poverty is sad and makes me upset. I know there is nothing we can do right away for the people in poverty in the whole country but we can start with helping those in our cities or towns. Helping those in poverty can be a long process which is why it should be started now. People in poverty need hope and we can give it to them.