Elizabethan Poor Laws in USA

Elizabethan Poor Laws in USA

Introduction

Poverty is a menace which has been affecting various economies over a long period of time. Poverty stricken people become a burden on the society. They form an important crux of the state. When the United States was affected by poverty in the early years, there was inception of Elizabethan Poor laws. They were introduced with the purpose of tacking the threat of poverty.

Elizabethan Poor Laws focused on two aspects. One was the concept of Poor Houses and the other was the concept of Outdoor relief. Since long, there has been a massive impact of poor houses and Outdoor Relief on Poverty in United States as a whole.

Discussion

Analysis of the Problem

Any society plagued by poverty has grave consequences for the State as a whole. The poor houses and outdoor relief form a very important part of United States poverty. Any law requires adequate funding for its success. In United States, there has been focus on funding the poor houses for achieving desired results. There have been many pros of funding the poor houses. In order to achieve efficient goals, there has to be some encouragement for persons working on a daily basis. It serves as a discouragement for people who are lazy in nature. It is very essential to have employees who are passionate in their job (Hanson, n.d).

Employees who are not passionate to work would have adverse effect on society. Similarly productive workers would be contributing to the economy as a whole. Dependent persons are the ones who have to be looked after carefully. Considering the nature of American Society, there have been a very less proportion of families who have dependent citizens.

Poor houses served as a useful place to keep refuge for sick people. Sick people got their needs addressed in a beneficial manner. People working on a daily basis have a self belief in them and they are motivated to do everything. Poor houses not only felicitated the sick children but also there was felicitation for children who do not have any person to care for them. Employees working on a daily basis would serve as a discouragement for employees who are not working productively. There are many persons in society who cannot work due to weaknesses in their body structure. Whereas there are other people who just do not work even after having no complications in their body structure. They are just not in the mood to work.

Outdoor Relief also contributes a great deal towards poverty. There have been extensive laws on overcoming poverty. A lot of emphasis is laid on measures to improve outdoor relief. In the early days, there was large amount of variation in the nature of outdoor relief. There were complications in the availability of outdoor relief.

Public relief is very important for an economy to prosper. If their needs are not addressed there will be continuous failure of the economy. There should be focus on public assistance for an economy ...