Samreen Ahmed.
Professor N.R. Goode.
Societal Issues and Trends in Healthcare. (SOC - 210)
Georgia Military College.
Topic: Critical Analysis of poverty in the United States and how it creates, perpetuates, exacerbates, and sustains health
disparities along the lines of race.
WHAT IS POVERTY????
INTRODUCTION
Introduction.
● “The lack of, or the inability to
achieve, a socially acceptable
standard of living.”
(Bellu & Liberati, 2005)
Ex
● Poverty - Lack of Resources,
Specially lack of “Financial
source” (Ch - 6, Personal Notes)
– Individual factors:
• People of working age have few skills, hence low pay
The most difficult
question is ‘WHY’ are
people poor:
• Is there a lack of personal responsibility or effort?
– Structural factors:
• Entry barriers related to race and ethnicity and
incarceration
• Economic recession
– Cultural factors:
• Norms and attitudes (Haveman & Robert, 2009.)
●
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WHY DOES
POVERTY
MATTER?!
Negative effects on individuals and self efficacy
Moral/ethic arguments –justice
Economic and social costs:
– Negative impact of child poverty on society’s future
(children as social investment)
– Negative consequences for communities (e.g., crime,
blight, low property values)
– Costs to other social systems (e.g., income support,
incarceration, child welfare) (Reeves, Rodrigue,& Kneebone,2016)
1. LOW HOUSEHOLD INCOME.
2. LIMITED EDUCATION.
FIVE
DIMENSIONS
OF POVERTY
3. NO HEALTH INSURANCE.
4. LOW - INCOME AREA.
5. UNEMPLOYMENT.
(Reeves, Rodrigue, & Kneebone, 2016)
POVERTY IN AMERICA.
● Reviewing recent research on poverty in the United States, we derive a conceptual framework
with three main characteristics. First, poverty is multidimensional, compounding material
hardship with human frailty, generational trauma, family and neighborhood violence, and broken
institutions.
● Second, poverty is relational, produced through connections between the truly advantaged and
the truly disadvantaged.
● Third, a component of this conceptual framework is transparently normative, applying empirical
research to analyze poverty as a matter of justice, not just economics. Throughout, we discuss
conceptual, methodological, and policy-relevant implications of this perspective on the study of
extreme disadvantage in America. (Desmond & Western, 2018).
● The state with the highest population is California, at 39 million. The number of
people living in poverty in the United States is over 40 million.
● While the average rate of poverty in the U.S. is 12.7%, the people in some
states see much more poverty than those who
live in other parts of the country.
Top 10 States with the Highest Poverty Rate, 2019 (Malat, & Hamilton,2005)
. Mississippi
20.80%
Louisiana
20.20%
New Mexico
19.80%
Kentucky
18.50%
West Virginia
17.90%
Arkansas
17.20%
Alabama
17.10%
Arizona
16.40%
Oklahoma
16.30%
Georgia
16.00%
●
RACE: social construct, not biological, mostly referring to
physical attribute/phenotypes.
POVERTY
●
Poverty and Race are Correlated.
●
Poverty and Race - YouTube
●
Increasing exposure to family poverty negatively affects child
health. Future research would benefit from more studies that
AND RACE.
utilize longitudinal measures of childhood poverty. We suggest
that public policies to reduce childhood poverty exposure would
improve child health. (Malat, & Hamilton, 2005)
●
Disparities in wealth correlate to disparities in children’s health.
Poverty, like race and ethnicity, is linked to sustained health
disparities.
●
●
●
●
It is also strongly associated with multiple risk factors (e.g., education, housing, access to care) for poor
health. Children who are lower on the socioeconomic hierarchy suffer disproportionately from almost
every disease and show higher rates of mortality than those above them. Low-income children are more
likely to be in fair or poor health than are their White contemporaries (Hughes, Kreger, Kushner, Pirani,
& Surie, 2007).
In exploring race in terms of women’s health, cultural norms are significant. Often, Black women, for
example, are burdened by poverty, lack of access to care, and limited education. Poor diet is also a
critical factor for some. However, it is important to recognize that not all Black people, including Black
women, are poor.
Recently, Senator Bernie Sanders, a candidate in the U.S. presidential primary race of 2016, was chided
for making this generalization. He stated at the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, on March 16,
“When you’re white … you don’t know what it’s like to be poor.”
He later corrected this statement, as the reality is that in terms of sheer numbers, there are more poor
White people than poor Black people in the United States. In a 2013 article, Yen helps identify the
“face” of poverty in the United States: While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three
times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.
●
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More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four,
accounting for more than 41% of the nation’s destitute, nearly double the number of poor
blacks. Sometimes termed “the invisible poor” by demographers, lower-income whites
generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60% are white.
Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread
across America’s heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great
Plains.
Hence, poverty is not limited to emerging majorities of any race or ethnicity, although there is
disproportionality, which lends to the health status gap. This insight can be applied to women,
as a specific group.
For women who live in low-income communities, there is an increased risk of poor health
conditions. Women generally experience illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and
diabetes, particularly when their income and access to care are limited. Black women are
disproportionately impacted. (CH- 8, Pg 106 - 109 Patti R. Rose 2020 )
●
●
Multidimensional poverty, then, is clearly
much more common among blacks and
Hispanics. While the percentage of all
groups with many disadvantages is
obviously low, the absolute numbers are
not trivial; more than 3 million black and
5 million Hispanic adults suffer from at
least three disadvantages.
A different way to illustrate this stark race
gap is in terms of the relative risk for
African Americans and Hispanics of being
disadvantaged on multiple dimensions
compared to whites.
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CONCLUSION.
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In my opinion, poverty is a topic that has been
discussed over for ages.
Poverty and Race (Racism) are directly proportional to
each other.
There should be right and accurate measures practiced
and implemented.
Proper and equal education should be give to everyone
irrespective to age and race.
Enough number of sets and job opportunities should be
made available.
Basic necessities like food, water, clothes, etc. should
be made easy to purchase or access.
Poverty is everywhere, Its is the government and the
responsible people that take the right measures to
eradicate and prevent it.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Bellu, L. G., & Liberati, P. (2005). Impacts of policies on
poverty: The definition of poverty.
Desmond, M., & Western, B. (2018). Poverty in America:
New directions and debates. Annual Review of Sociology,
44, 305-318.
Haveman, Robert. 2009. “What Does it Mean to be Poor in
a Rich Society?” In Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger,
eds. Changing Poverty, Changing Policies. New York:
Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.
Patti R. Rose (2020). Health Equity, Diversity, and
Inclusion: Context, Controversies and Solutions.
Poverty and Race - YouTube
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Malat, J., Oh, H. J., & Hamilton, M. A. (2005). Poverty experience,
race, and child health. Public health reports, 120(4), 442-447.
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Reeves, R., Rodrigue, E., & Kneebone, E. (2016). Five evils:
Multidimensional poverty and race in America. Economic Studies at
Brookings Report, 1, 1-22.
THANK YOU.