The Face of Poverty

Poverty in the United States has many faces today…“For a homeless man on the Streets of Los Angeles, it means not knowing where he will spend the night or where his next meal will come from.  For a young child in rural Alabama, it means going without breakfast and wearing hand-me-down clothes that are little more than rags.  For a New York businesswoman laid off by her company, being poor means having no income and feeling a rising sense of panic over finding a job.  For a teen in the suburbs of Cleveland, it means giving up the dream of college to search for work and help support a struggling family.”

Introduction:
What if I told you that in 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0%?   That’s about 46.5 million people living in poverty.  This rate is 2.5% points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession.  What is I told you that research indicates that 40% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will experience at least one year below the official poverty line?  Today, poverty has become an event that a majority of Americans will experience.  For some, it is only a matter of time before they experience poverty for some period of time.  For many, a loss of a job, hours being cut back, families splitting up or parents getting divorced, and developing an illness could be the only thing that a family needs to be thrown into poverty.  The purpose of this blog is to examine a topic that is surrounded by many debates, misconceptions, and stereotypes: poverty.  I have divided this blog into three categories: the old face of poverty, the new face of poverty, and the changing face of poverty.

The Old Face of Poverty

They are many myths and stereotypes surrounding the topic of poverty.  The old face of poverty was disproportionately young children, minorities, elderly individuals, disabled individuals, mentally ill individuals, criminals, and females.   Most groups and subgroups of people in living poverty did not show a statistically significant change.  Poverty among children has risen, fallen, and risen again. Today, of the 100 million Americans living at or near the poverty line, 70% are women (42 million) and children.  Poverty among African Americans is still twice the rate for whites, but it’s dropped from 41% after President Johnson’s “War on Poverty” to 27% in 2012.  Poverty among Hispanics has risen.  More than half of the 22 million person increase in official poverty between 1972 and 2012 was among Hispanics.  Poverty among the elderly has fallen.  They are far fewer elderly (over the age of 65) individuals who are poor today. In 1966, 28.5% of Americans ages 65 and over were poor but in 2012, only 9.1% of Americans ages 65 and over were poor. 

The New Face of Poverty

Today, the face of poverty has shifted.  Some of the most prevalent and damaging stereotypes still exist today. These include but are not limited to individuals who live in poverty are “lazy, unskilled, stupid, prefer poverty, and uneducated.”   However, among those living in poverty today are college educated, former middle-class worker, suburbanite and the homeowner.  Today, being poor doesn’t mean being unemployed.  Many individuals are finding themselves working lower skilled and waged jobs. More than 5% of the workforce works 2 jobs to make ends meet but they still live in poverty.  More than half (57%) of the nation’s poor are in their prime working years.  Many individuals suggests that the “new poor” of the 20^th century are entirely different from the poor in the 19^th century because few opportunities for advancement exists. 

Also, family structures are very different than they were many years ago.  More and more families are finding themselves living at or below the poverty line, today.  Some families are living paycheck to paycheck, just to make ends meet.  11.2% of households, more than 1 in 10, say they struggle to feed themselves.  The US Census Bureau reported that 88% of low income, working families include a parent 25-54 years old.  In 1973, more than half (51.4%) of poor families were female-headed, while 38.9% were headed by married couples.  In 2012, the family poverty rate and number of families in poverty were 11.8 % (9.5 million).  In 2012: 6.3% of married couples, 30.9 % of families with female householder, and 16.4% of families with a male householder lived in poverty.  As evident from the statistics, having a two-parent household with both parents working full-time does not guarantee absolute stability.  Suburban poverty is currently higher than urban poverty.  In 2008, researchers argued the opposite.

 The Changing Face of Poverty
Researchers argue the face of poverty is the result of policy choices or the absence of policy.  The fact that the face of poverty is changing is very significant. It is evident that there has been a lot of work done (example: Social Security, Food Stamps, Earned-Income Tax) that has helped individuals and families stay out of poverty.  But I believe that more needs to be done.  For starters, I think the way in which we measure poverty needs to be reexamined.  There are a lot of things that it does not take into consideration.  This changes could make a huge difference in the composition of poverty.  Changing the way we look and measure poverty could potentially change the face of poverty even more.