Investigation of Poverty within the United States of America

Investigation of Poverty within the United States of America

Introduction

Poverty is presently the quintessential dilemma in the world. Failures of economies to provide the basic necessities, poor education systems and scarcity of resources lead to poverty, and there is no stark end to it. Because this issue is so vast, it is practically impossible to solve it in a few years. It will take decades just to improve. Thus, until there is successful alleviation of poverty, other socio-economic concerns of that nation will not be solved. Three billion people starve each, and many are on the brink of starvation, and approximately 11 million people live without shelter worldwide, annually. People have been divided into two broad groups - the ones who have and the ones who do not have. These are their permanent statuses and they will live the rest of their lives in accordance to these statuses.

Poverty is not only a key concern in the developing world, but it has also become a major issue for the world's richest country America, the number of the poor runs into tens of millions. The number of people living below the poverty line in the United States is estimated at a staggering 37 million or 12.7% of the country's population. The U.S. has lost about 2.7 million jobs since the year 2000 to outsourcing in developing countries like Pakistan, India and China where costs of production is low. The poverty situation is further deteriorating day by day as instead of focusing on the federal budget deficit, the U.S. government is diverting billions of dollars on the war against Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. (www.dawn.com)

Discussion

Sociology and Poverty

Sociologists studying the sociology of poverty typically examine precise areas like unemployment, lack of available jobs and insufficient education. The study also includes areas like crime rates of the poor, unique cultural practices of the poor and other common stereotypes of the poor. (www.wisegeek.com)

Karl Marx - better known as the father of Sociology has a very simple theory that covers the basic reason of poverty and inequality. He believes that society is divided into two groups; the bourgeoisie - the ones who own the factors of production or the upper class and the proletariats - the ones who work for the factor owners or the lower/middle class. The bourgeoisie exploits the Proletariats on many bases, especially wealth. This has been the scenario since times immemorial, and the lower class is in a state of alienation in which they do not realize that they are being exploited due to which they will start feeling isolated from each other. After this, they shall, as a class, realize that they are being exploited which is when false consciousness will end, and class consciousness will prevail. This shall force the lower class to over throw the upper class someday and establish communism. The Marxist theory fits perfectly in every aspect that leads to poverty.

Since the white Americans constitute about 72% of ...