Dillon Ruales Mrs. Pierce Basic comp. December 12, 2022 As you walk down the street, you may pass a house that is smaller than the rest in your neighborhood, a house which is a little less maintained, a house which looks out of place in the environment you have grown up in because it seems to be worth less in appearances and structure. Now, you walk down a crowded city street in New York City and find yourself walking a little faster as you approach a group of people who appear to be less well off than you, who appear to be a little less hygienic, and who may ask for any change you can spare. When looking at both of these scenarios, despite how different they may appear, the similarities between these two situations are well and the same. When thinking about poverty, one immediately looks to homeless people but in reality, poverty exists everywhere in different circumstances. Poverty refers to the state a person exists in when they lack a socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Thus, the state of poverty is heavily influenced by the set of circumstances and the environment in which a person lives. When talking about the house that was mentioned in the beginning, it may appear to belong to someone poor when comparing it to vast mansions that make up a neighborhood in an environment but may very well pass off as normal in an area when surrounded by similar-looking houses. However, poverty is a cyclical power as it rises over and over “from the twisted psychology of the poor themselves”, according to the government, rather than the “low wages or a lack of jobs and education” (Ehrenreich 2). In order to create a stronger nation and world, poverty must be reduced as…(thesis) Since Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, conservative intellectuals and politicians have argued that poverty comes from the negative habits and attitudes of the poor. This argument has been detrimental to the problem as it has become the immediate first impression one sees when looking at the poor. The immediate reaction of the public is that they should be able to climb out of poverty on their own and there are already enough government programs available to the poor that it is ridiculous to consider them helpless. They choose to stay in the circumstances they are in because they are unwilling to put in the effort and do the work to remove themselves from this cyclical problem. However, Ehrenreich argues in her article, “It is Expensive to Be Poor”, that the true culprit of poverty is “the economy or inadequate social supports” because the public, as well as the conservatives in government, only see poor people and believe their choices have left them in the position they now find themselves in (Ehrenreich 4). Despite these beliefs, there are those who speak the truth about falling into poverty. They talk about the difficult circumstances which have resulted in their inability to climb out of poverty. The jobs they work do not provide sufficient income to maintain the bare necessities of life let alone go beyond that and have enough money for two months rent as a security deposit. Ehrenreich admits to having worked multiple jobs in order to survive while writing her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. As a woman, she had to work the jobs which she did not because they were lowpaying, but instead, because they were the only jobs that were most readily available to women. Smarsh goes through similar struggles as a woman as she mentions when writing, “They are the teeth of poor folk…who helped to raise me and for decades worked from diner to factory line to a desk job as a probation officer for the county court system in Wichita, Kansas” (Smarsh 1). Despite having an array of jobs which resulted in a vast gathered experience, at the end of the day, they still lived in poverty because corporations, and even the government, refused to give women the opportunities that opened doors for men with the same experiences. At the same time, these same companies and governments argued “By staying at home and collecting welfare, they set a toxic example for their children” (Ehrenreich 2). It was because companies and the government were unwilling to provide the jobs, and even when they did, they were unable to provide sufficient income to maintain basic necessities for women, let alone their children, that this circle would repeat itself with another generation. Despite all the programs the government had in place, this did not mean that they were accessible. Programs such as Medicaid assisted in costs but they were not all-encompassing. Smarsh talks about the teeth of her family and community, discussing how, despite the programs made available by the government, they all still had bad teeth. It was not entirely due to their habits, but rather the costs of maintaining their teeth were too overwhelming. In order to cut costs and readjust the balance so money could go towards other, more demanding problems, the bare minimum was done to keep teeth clean. In 2012, “more than 126 million people in the US…had no dental coverage” (Smarsh 1). Medicaid was a program run by the government which did not work to benefit many dentists which is why, despite being a part of the program, many people were still unable to access adequate dental resources as there were few dentists willing to participate in the programme. The inaccessibility of the programs provided by the government made them less useful. To add to the situation, during the Great Recession, the poor no longer consisted only of people who did not have access to a good education or better job opportunities. “In the space of only a few months, millions of people entered the ranks of the officially poor…downsized tech workers, managers, lawyers, and other once-comfortable professionals” (Ehrenreich 2). With more people reaching such levels, the criminalization of poverty rapidly increased, further encouraging this cycle of poverty. Now, it was no longer just people with less education who were facing the cycle, but rather, this cycle now enveloped educated people who did not have the social or governmental support to climb out of this cycle.
