Cycle Of Poverty Essay

Words: 529
Pages: 3

This book is based on people living on $2.00 a day, in 2011 1.5 million families were surviving on this income. The official poverty line for a family of three is that each person would earn $16.50 per day over a course of a year, many families do not meet this line. The families only receiving $2.00 a day are far below this line and struggling to survive. Programs such as SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and also known as food stamps, are given to the families in need. SNAP is seen as more like cash to recipients, but is supposed to be used for food. But families are so desperate for money to pay for bills, they sell their SNAP and ultimately leave their family hungry. Other things such as donating plasma, or providing sexual …show more content…
This could lead to families starving and not having the necessities to survive. Other people fear to apply because of rejection, this being another reason families are below the poverty line. Also when a person on Welfare secures a job, they lose a dollar of Welfare money for every dollar they earn. The cycle of poverty is passed on from generation to generation but this could possibly be pushed on by the government not applying cut offs. For example, Ronald Reagan created AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This program provided cash to families but had no time limit to how long they could stay on the program and didn’t require them to get a job or prove they were unable to work. Without the push from other families members or even the government, people stay in the cycle of poverty. Another struggle that families are under is trying to find a job. But when a job is found there are low wages and possible poor working conditions present, ultimately causing the families to stay in the cycle of poverty and to continue on with long term health conditions. Other outside philosophies say that race and gender could also affect if a person is hired or