Poverty is a terrible thing that effects millions of people worldwide, every year. The book gives different definitions of poverty; relative poverty which is the little amount of resources people have compared to others who have more. Also, there is Absolute poverty, which is a more serious issue and is dangerously low amounts of resources that it is life-threatening. Poverty makes putting food on the table and supporting a family very difficult. As of 2012, fifteen percent of the United States population was in poverty, you can read more statistics about poverty in the United States in the link below:
http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx
I haven't personally experienced poverty, but I have helped out people in one of the worst regions in the United States that is stricken by poverty. In the summers of 2009 and 2010, as a part of my church mission-group we traveled down to the Appalachian Mountain regions of Kentucky. Down there we helped families who houses needed a lot of repairing done to them and couldn't afford to get them repaired. In the summer of 2009 I worked on a family's house who was a trailer home on top of cinder blocks, who was earning less than 600 dollars in their paycheck. Raccoons and other wildlife would climb under the trailer and rip holes in the floor of their home, so we put up tin siding on the bottom of their trailer to prevent wildlife doing that. Whenever it would rain down their (which was a lot in the summer) their ceiling was so corroded it would leak everywhere. We put rubber sealant on the roof to prevent their house from flooding. In the front of their house they had a very old rotten porch, and one day their 4 year old daughter walked out the door and fell through the wood. We quickly tore down the old porch and built a new one for them for the safety for the parents and their four children. In the summer of 2010 I helped an 80 year old women who was in a wheelchair and lived on her own. The front of her home was ripped open from a bad storm they had their from a few weeks prior. Wildlife would use these holes as a way to enter her home. She also would have to carry her wheelchair up a few stairs of her deck to get into her house. An 80 year old woman! What we did for her was we tore down her porch she had, and built her a new one with a ramp on it, that way she wouldn't have to climb any stairs. We also repaired the holes in her house so no animals could make their way in.
Something I noticed while I was down there helping these families was it wasn't just one race of ethnicity. They were people from every ethnic background. This shows that poverty can effect anyone at any time. The book says that two-thirds of the people in poverty are white and Hispanic. Also, that twenty-four percent of people in poverty are African Americans. Down in an area that is so poverty stricken, you wouldn't be able to tell there was more white people in poverty then African Americans. Poverty takes a toll on more women than men. In the book it says that fifty-nine percent of people in poverty are women and only forty-one percent are men. This is an example of feminization of poverty, which is defined by women making up for the increasing portion of people in poverty. This is because it is more difficult for women to get jobs over men, especially in a place with very limited job opportunities. For more information about feminzation of poverty, visit the link below:
https://www.boundless.com/sociology/understanding-stratification-inequality-and-social-class-in-the-u-s/poverty/the-feminization-of-poverty/
Poverty is something that effects millions of people, and no one will understand how hard it is until they have experienced it themselves. Something I learned about from my experience witnessing people in poverty, is they are the happiest people I have ever met. They know that they are in poverty, and that doesn't stop them from living happy lives. The families I helped out found a way to smile and be happy, even through the hard times. They are unlike people in the upper, or even middle class. They don't take anything they have for granted, and very fortunate for the little amount they do have. Everyone can learn from the families that I learned from, because they taught me that you don't have to be rich to be happy.
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