Poverty in the United States

Although the United States is a first-world country with a GDP of about 20 trillion USD, she has not managed to eradicate poverty utterly. Based on the Census Bureau of 2017, the rate of poverty in the United States is about 12.3%. Several scholars have revealed the pattens if poverty, its causes, implications, and possible poverty-eradication strategies.

The Increasing Risk of Poverty Across the American Life Course is authored by Sandoval, Rank & Hirschl (2009). They are academicians in the domains of sociology, anthropology, and social works in the United States. They use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to extend the empirical data concerning the incidence, chronicity, and age patterns of poverty in America since 1968. They find that the “life course of poverty has increased since 1970, and …the risk its self is substantial” (Sandoval, Rank & Hirschl, 2009, p.730). They also contend that the risk of poverty is caused by “long-term economic and social policy patterns over the past 15 to 20 years” (Sandoval, Rank & Hirschl, 2009, p.731). This article is relevant since the findings are spread across the American’s lifespan, that Bernstein, Rehkopf, Tuljapurkar & Horvitz (2018) finds threshold.

Poverty dynamics, poverty thresholds, and mortality: An age-stage Markovian model concerns the threshold of poverty across an American lifespan. The authors, Bernstein, Rehkopf, Tuljapurkar & Horvitz, are department members in the faculties of biological sciences and medicine in the United States. Bernstein, Rehkopf, Tuljapurkar & Horvitz (2018) investigate the heterogeneity and mortality disparities (threshold) of poverty as an extension of previous studies that investigated the risk of poverty in the course of life, using age-by-stage matrix models to human demography and individual poverty dynamics. They find that the “poverty state is associated with income-related mortality disparities” (p.1). They also contend that “the greatest probability of exiting their low-income state at younger ages” (p.8). Nevertheless, other studies find that child poverty is a pressing problem in the united stated.

In the paper Child Poverty in the United States: A Tale of Devastation and the Promise of Hope, Alyn McCarty depicts child poverty as a critical social problem in the United States. She is a faculty member and a contributor to the Center for Women’s Health and Health Disparities Research. In her work, McCarty finds that “15.5 million children—or 21.1% of children under age 18—lived in families with incomes below the federal poverty line” (McCarty, 2016, p.623). This article is relevant since she accounts for the papers of poverty across social groups and geographic space. McCarty finds that poverty exerts its influence by resources, culture, and stress, but maybe mitigated by focusing on educational outcomes, child health, “anti-poverty policy and early childhood interventions” (p.633). She insists that poverty deteriorates a child’s health outcomes, as reported in the journals of Academic Pediatrics.

Ajay Chaudry and Christopher Wimer authored Poverty is Not Just an Indicator: The Relationship Between Income, Poverty, and Child Well-Being in the journals of Academic Pediatrics. They work in the departments of public service, and human development and social changes, with backgrounds in sociology and public policies. They assert that while child poverty has been used as an indicator of poverty, it is related to low-incomes, and deteriorates “cognitive-developmental and educational outcomes” in children (Chaudry & Wimer, 2016, p.s23). Their findings agree with McCarty (2016) that poverty affects children “through material hardships, family stress, and reduced parental cognitive input and spending” (Chaudry & Wimer, 2016, p.s27). This article is useful in analyzing the implications of poverty in the United States.

To sum up, poverty is a prevalent social issue in the United States. Its implications are possible to analyses across the American’s course of life. While some studies find that ease of exiting poverty is highest at childhood, others find that child poverty is a critical social issue. It is not just an indicator, but a risk factor to child wellbeing. Further research may investigate the implications of cultural disparities such as race and naturalization on the rates of child poverty.

References

Bernstein, S., Rehkopf, D., Tuljapurkar, S., & Horvitz, C. (2018). Poverty dynamics, poverty thresholds and mortality: An age-stage Markovian model. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0195734. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195734

Chaudry, A., & Wimer, C. (2016). Poverty is Not Just an Indicator: The Relationship Between Income, Poverty, and Child Well-Being. Academic Pediatrics, 16(3), S23-S29. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2015.12.010

McCarty, A. (2016). Child Poverty in the United States: A Tale of Devastation and the Promise of Hope. Sociology Compass, 10(7), 623-639. doi: 10.1111/soc4.12386

Sandoval, D., Rank, M., & Hirschl, T. (2009). The Increasing Risk of Poverty Across the American Life Course. Demography, 46(4), 717-737. doi: 10.1353/dem.0.0082