Pérez 1

Eyvonne Lorayne Pérez

Professor Angela Pedrotti

English 1201

7 July 2019

The Misfortunes of Poverty

Walking down a busy street in New York, many will look forward with a clear

destination in mind. Not many people will look down to the curb or the side to see a dirty,

homeless person sitting in a tattered blanket, and even less will stop to give money or help the

homeless individual. Upon seeing someone of a lower economic class, parents will tell their

children, “You better study or else you’ll end up like him,” and instill in the young moldable

minds of their children that poverty is a result of laziness and poor decisions over the course of

an individual’s life. Not many realize that there are multiple factors that can play such an

important role in this situation, as well as the obstacles and loss of opportunities that can arise

from it. While most people in society do little to help, the government can play a large and

influential role in helping the poor. The United States government should offer more resources to

those in impoverished communities and situations to help residents and those affected live

happier, healthier and more successful lives.

Poverty has been forever present in communities, both ancient and modern. There has

always been a separation from those in power and those who are not, and as currency surged, so

did economical classes. Those in power, such as kings, dictators, emperors, presidents, have been

wealthier than the public. Of course, there are exceptions, such as owners of large companies

who are richer than even their leader. Many leaders and wealthy people choose to keep their

money and refuse to help the poor, however, upon seeing the conditions the bottom of the
 Pérez 2

population lives in, many try to help reduce the severity of the harsh conditions by starting

charities or other programs. Although this would seem helpful, the programs that have been

created have not been entirely effective due to not understanding the basic reasons as to why

such problems and conditions within these communities exist.

One of the most important things for a person is food. People need to eat. Vegetables,

fruits, meats, grains, and so on. Many enjoy an occasional hamburger from McDonald's or

perhaps getting some fries every day from Wendy’s but will still eat homecooked meals.

Children would like to eat these fast food chains for every meal, as would adults, however, it is

common knowledge that eating fast food every day for every meal would be unwise and could

result detrimental to one’s health.

Residents of impoverished communities tend to live in food deserts. According to the

Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), food

deserts are, areas that lack access to affordable fruits,

vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods

that make up a full and healthy diet.” Having a complete

diet is essential to a long and healthy lifestyle. Many

supermarkets are a distance away from these

communities that make it difficult for one to walk there and Caption: Being surrounded by the cheap fast food
industry, and the struggles of healthy and affordable food
can lead to drastic health consequences such as obesity.
get their essential supplies. Many times, the food is also too

expensive, resulting in getting the food that is most immediately available and affordable. Being

surrounded by cheap, fast food chains make it almost impossible for these residents to be able to

get to a healthy supermarket to get the food one needs.

 Pérez 3

According to PBS, in an article written by co-founder of the UVA Food Collaborative,

Paul Freedman, “counties with the highest percentage of households living in food deserts (10

percent or more) had rates of adult obesity in 2008 that were a full nine percentage points higher

than counties with the lowest percentage of households in food deserts (1 percent or fewer

households). Similarly, high-food desert counties had rates of adult diabetes that were five points

higher than low-food desert places.” Although many would assume that eating unhealthily will

result in higher chances of diseases, cancers and a shorter life-expectancy, sometimes this is the

only food source for the residents of these low-income communities. If governments were able to

provide more availability to healthy and affordable grocery stores to impoverished communities,

there will be a decrease in the amount of diabetes, obesity and other illnesses, which would result

to a healthier community, both mentally and physically, decreasing the number of serious

hospital visitations.

Medical facilities are not always available to residents of poverty-stricken communities.

When they are available, insurance is typically a requirement and if a resident does not have it,

there is a high fee that must be paid, indebting the individual when one can barely afford one’s

current expenses. Due to this, many of the underprivileged refuse to go to the doctor’s office for

small things or symptoms and decide to wait out their illness. Sometimes, these symptoms and

signs are symptoms of a more serious and deadly disease, and once the disease becomes too

serious, then it will either be too late or extremely expensive to treat.

Many places that do offer treatment to low-income residents, do not offer treatment for

every case or disease. One of the least treated issues in these communities is regarding mental

health, even though it is the most important issue, especially for the youth. Many residents of

these communities are minorities, such as African American or Hispanic. These youths and their
 Pérez 4

population face discrimination and stereotypes as well as abuse, taking a serious toll on their

mental health. According to the Mental Health Foundation, people who experience a traumatic

event will be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. These not

being treated, especially early in an individual’s life, can lead to more serious complications,

situations, and behaviors.

The accessibility and affordability to medical facilities in low-income communities is an

absolute necessity to ensure mentally and physically healthier lives to those who are affected.

Being healthier means that one will take less “sick-days” at work and be able to earn more

money to help one’s own self and family. However, another important factor to a reduced

immune-system is stress and the stress of having to balance unaffordable bills, food, and any

other miscellaneous items can add up and could be reduced if the basic needs of housing, food

and other necessities are taken out of account by having a basic income to offer ailment and to

redirect priorities elsewhere.

Applying the opportunity for families to receive a basic income from the government

reduces the amount of stress and permits low-income families to increase their economic stance,

which can help alleviate some of the obstacles and create more equal opportunities for members.

Rutger Bregman explains in his Ted Talk Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash,

basic income as, “...a monthly grant, enough to pay for your basic needs: food, shelter,

education. It's completely unconditional…”. Having to not need to pay for food, shelter and

education can help families have a serious advantage over others that have to pay for those

necessities. Families with the basic-income can begin to save money and pay for other

necessities or items to help simplify their life.

 Pérez 5

There have been many studies taking place all over the world, such as Canada, India, and

parts of the United States where the idea of basic-income has been tested and proved to increase

the wealth of the town, improve health and even improve school performance in children.

However, with improving education, faculty of schools in and near these communities need to

prepare to help these students to be continuously academically challenged and continue to set

goals for students to accomplish.

Education is a key factor in an individual’s life. Academics determine whether the

individual is accepted into a college, given any scholarships, programs, which can determine

one’s amount of debt, job and social opportunities that can become available as one progresses

into adulthood. Studies in Mexico, run by Iliana Yaschin in Is Education enough to Overcome

Poverty, found, “The study’s findings support that education is a key element for the promotion

of intergenerational mobility of this sector, a stress should be thus given to educational policies

that guarantee access to quality education at all levels for population living in poverty.”

While education is not the only factor playing into one’s abilities, it does play an

incredibly important role. A symposium by the Association for Psychological Science identified,

“identified smaller hippocampal volume among low socioeconomic status children and

adolescents compared with their high socioeconomic status.” The hippocampus serves to help

create memories and store long-term memories, as well as plays a key role in obtaining and

maintaining knowledge. A smaller hippocampus would create difficulties involving knowledge

retention and memory storage. But why are members of low-income areas affected by this? The

US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health states, “Recent human studies

show smaller hippocampal volume in individuals with stress-related psychiatric conditions,”

 Pérez 6

which can be caused by the stress of debt, crime, prejudice, lack of resources, and so on, and all

these stresses can affect the hippocampus which can disturb a student’s learning process.

Helping impoverished residents and their families receive a higher quality education from

an early age can help their academic performance from the beginning and instill good study

habits for children. Placing goals for children to achieve as they study, and giving students the

possibility to dream, choose, and design their future will help children work hard to achieve their

goals and open future opportunities and possibilities. It is also important to educate others to

become more understanding and willing to help, as arising from any situation is a team effort.

While everyone can have their own beliefs, it is crucial that we educate the public with

what is truly going on in the lower-class environment. When faced with poverty, people need to

decide on what is immediately necessary. For example, if one has only one-hundred dollars

($100) and one must pay rent for fifty dollars ($50), feed their family ($50), or to treat their very

sick child with no insurance, which costs about one-hundred-and-fifty dollars ($150), would you

pay the rent and feed your family? Would you choose to ask for a loan with a ten percent (10%)

interest and shelter, feed, and care for your family? Would you care for the sick child and let

your family starve? There simply is not enough money for one to do all that is necessary.

Many children grow up with false beliefs about the lower-class public, thinking they are

lazy, or rash, but children are raised under the beliefs that they grow up in. Being able to instill a

course in schools to raise awareness about the thought-process of individuals affected by this sort

of problems help open the public eye and to create a more open and willing to help society.

Schools will also be able to help students understand why some go into poverty and what

decisions should be avoided or how they should be handled.

 Pérez 7

While some schools have programs to help children become more financially literate, this

will only help solve part of the problem. It will help reduce the number of the population that

may fall below the poverty line by educating in financial matters, but it will not help individuals

help others who are already below, nor become more compassionate. It is difficult not to judge

people who are considered less than oneself, but it is important to empathize and to help each

other to build a better society.

One of the most important aspects to a healthy society is reduced crime. The article,

Understanding violence and developing resilience with African American youth in high-poverty,

high-crime communities, identifies these communities having to face, “the intersectionalities of

catalysts of violence, such as institutional racism, police brutality, deficits in child, protection…”

and so on. One of the biggest reasons that there is a high crime rate in lower-income

communities is because there is the unavailability of currency. It is difficult to save money, and

when there is wealth, others who are not in the position of wealth, will look for ways to get

something they desire. Robbery, theft, murder, all common when the right emotions are at a high

and the adrenaline pumps through one’s veins. Common luxuries of the middle and higher-class,

such as a television, or certain medication, cash, etc. are needed or wanted but are not easily

attainable. When it is unattainable, some will go to extreme measure to obtain what they seek.

Vitanna.org states, “When people live in households that are struggling with poverty,

they also have a higher rate of violence that involves a firearm at 3.5 per 1,000 people compared

to 0.8-2.5 per 1,000 people in middle-to-high income families.” This higher crime-rate just by

gun violence can create an unsafe environment for children to grow and function. It doesn’t help

that black people are “three time more likely to be killed by police than white people,” and that

“30% of black victims were unarmed in 2015 compared to the 21% of white victims,” according
 Pérez 8

to the website mappingpoliceviolence.org. These statistics of being unarmed, or in general being

a person of color, can make people living in lower-income communities more unwilling to seek

police help and report crime in fear that they will become victims to an attacker who was

supposed to protect them and to make their community safer. Safer communities involve having

a police force that is more willing to help stop crime, instead of committing crime, and a

community working hard to improve the economic stance in order to reduce crime rates.

Within this essay, there is a noticeable pattern that living in poverty causes, emphasized

in the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners 2012 Workshop Session , displaying

how residing in impoverished communities, leads to poor health and poor education, which leads

to a decreased ability to work, causing a decrease in human capital, lowering the economic

output (otherwise known as “unemployment”), which returns us back to creating more

impoverished communities. This is known as “The Cycle of Poverty”. Being able to help

impoverished communities become healthier and more educated can help break the cycle and

stimulate the economy, from which everyone benefits.

It is commonly thought that people who are poor, are poor by choice. It is thought the

homeless begging on the street for money use the money to purchase drugs, consume alcohol,

buying cigarettes, etc. rather than spending the money on food and other necessities or even just

saving the money for a future emergency. While some individuals choose to spend their money

this way, there are others who do buy what is most immediately needed and scrap together what

they can. However, it is almost impossible to save enough money by taking people’s extra

change and spare dollars. For someone to save money, their income must be greater than their

expenditures. The constant need for money, being exposed to the elements, as well as any other

dangers of being outside such as crime, and illnesses, can cause damage to one’s health. Being so
 Pérez 9

poor that one must beg for money on the streets means it is much less likely for the individual to

seek or even to be approved for proper medical treatment. One would think that because society

refuses to contribute voluntarily to the impoverished individuals and communities that the next

best choice would be to seek funding from the government.

Over the course of the past 50 years, the government has tried multiple programs to help

low-income individuals rise to an equal point in the socioeconomic ladder, such as the Personal

Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWOR), and other welfare acts.

Many of these programs do cause some alleviation for families, however, results are typically

short-lived. That’s why many people refuse to help government projects to help alleviate

poverty, due to no results lasting longer than a few years. Proposing that the government begins

the project of “Basic-Income Guarantee” help the low-income families need not for their most

urgent needs as they are paid for and the individuals can focus on other urgent factors. This will

also allow them to have a higher income versus expenditure allowing for a higher amount of

money to be saved and to help build a better future. Studies that have resulted from this have

proved incredibly effective and results last for years and help build a stronger community and a

better economy. To be able to afford to pay so many members from these communities would

cost an incredible amount that the government is unable to afford, resulting in other measures to

take place.

Since the government is unable to begin the Basic-Income Guarantee on their own, the

government would need outside help, such as taxing members of the middle and higher class.

Many do not approve of this as their money is “hard-earned” and believe it would cost too much.

The taxation would not be very expensive, just a few extra cents or dollars, and taxation would

mostly be directed toward members of the high class, as it is more easily affordable for them.
 Pérez 10

According to the UN.org, to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide, it would cost approximately

one-hundred-seventy-five ($175) billion dollars annually, which would be easily covered by the

donation total of less than one percent (1%) from the richest countries. The same amount of

money to help the United States’ poverty would be covered by, “a quarter of US military

spending, one percent of GDP,” according to Rutger Bregman. Spending money in the correct

areas of our society could help low-income individuals and communities as well as raise the

United States economy.

It’s easy for individuals to judge people for situations society finds uncommon or lesser

than without understanding the true complexities of the situation, lifestyle, and lives in general of

the low-income public. Being able to understand the differences and reasoning behind decisions

and obstacles the lower class faces allow the public to want to help and to provide actual, result-

providing ailment to those in need. The best way to help our lower socioeconomic public is by

providing better funding for health, education, and providing necessary resources to those in

need to thrive in our current economy.

 Pérez 11

Works Cited:

Ayres, Crystal. “26 Poverty and Crime Statistics.” Vittana.org, 4 July 2019, vittana.org/26-

poverty-and-crime-statistics.

Bregman, Rutger. “Poverty Isn't a Lack of Character; It's a Lack of Cash.” TED,

www.ted.com/talks/rutger_bregman_poverty_isn_t_a_lack_of_character_it_s_a_lack_of_

cash/discussion#t-69819.

Department of Health and Human Services. “CDC Features.” Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Aug. 2017,

www.cdc.gov/features/fooddeserts/.

Farah, Martha J. “Integrative Science Symposium.” How Poverty Affects the Brain and

Behavior, Scott Sleek, 31 Aug. 2015, www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-

poverty-affects-the-brain-and-behavior. Accessed 18 June 2019.

Gilbertson, Mark W, et al. “Smaller Hippocampal Volume Predicts Pathologic Vulnerability to

Psychological Trauma.” Nature Neuroscience, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov.

2002, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2819093/.

McCray, Rebecca. “Mapping Police Violence.” Mapping Police Violence, 5 July 2019,

mappingpoliceviolence.org/.

McCrea, et al. “Understanding Violence and Developing Resilience with African American

Youth in High-Poverty, High-Crime Communities, by McCrea, Katherine Tyson;

Richards, Maryse; Quimby, Dakari; Scott, Darrick; Davis, Lauren; Hart, Sotonye;

Thomas, Andre; Hopson, Symora.” Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, 1 Jan.

1970, ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v99y2019icp296-307.html.
 Pérez 12

Mental Health Foundation, “The Impact of Traumatic Events on Mental Health.” Mental Health

Foundation, 13 June 2017, www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/impact-traumatic-

events-mental-health.

PBS, “The Socio-Economic Significance of Food Deserts.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

29 June 2011, www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/the-socio-economic-significance-of-food-

deserts.

Rogers, Rob. “Food Desert.” RobRogers.com, Rob Rogers, 25 May 2012,

robrogers.com/2012/05/25/food-desert-25-may-2012/.

United Nations, No Poverty: Why It Matters. No Poverty: Why It Matters, www.un.org/

sustainabledevelopment.

Warren, Gwendolyn C. “Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners 2012 Workshop

Session.” Pinellas County Health and Human Services, 17 May 2012.

Yaschine, Iliana. “¿Alcanza La Educación Para Salir De La Pobreza? Análisis Del Proceso De

Estratificación Ocupacional De Jóvenes Rurales En México1.” Revista Mexicana De

Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, No Longer Published by Elsevier, 7 Mar. 2015,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0185191815721422.