Generational Poverty In The United States

Words: 573
Pages: 3

Statistics- “The overall SPM rate in 2022 was 12.4 percent, or 40.9 million people living in poverty in the United States. The agency reported this represented the first significant increase in the poverty rate since 2010” and defined disadvantaged economic conditions, including low income, and material wealth that negatively affect individuals, families, and future generations. Generational poverty is a growing and complicated issue that could put America at risk of becoming unstable or losing wealth if not carefully considered.

Generational poverty can be caused by many factors that build up over time, which can eventually start a cycle in a family. Some of these factors include situational poverty and structural poverty. Situational poverty, which occurs when a crisis plunges an individual into poverty. Examples of such can be natural disasters, sudden unemployment, health problems, and expensive healthcare. These difficult financial situations can overwhelm an individual and can burden their family and friends, which eventually becomes a cycle of inability to escape poverty. Another cause for generational poverty can be structural poverty; economic and social policies driving people to poverty, such as housing discrimination, lack of quality education, and few employment opportunities. These issues can factor into the start of
…show more content…
For example, children born into generational poverty face many difficult challenges, they have many disadvantages such as school, health, development, housing, supplies, and when grown, they often lack the resources and support to escape poverty. Another effect of generational poverty is the mental health problems it has on an individual. Being in poverty influences emotional and behavioral development, it is emotionally stressful, which can cause a person to be demotivated and perform worse in many