Children in Poverty: Issues from the Book Thief

Children in Poverty Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, does a wonderful job portraying the life of Liesel Meminger, a poor German girl suffering the effects of poverty, yet trying to make the best of life where it seems most unlikely. He expresses her hardships in such a realistic way that makes the reader feel sympathy for his characters--all of which are struck with poverty. Child poverty has been around for years and is still caused by problems in family structure, educational issues, and even economical problems. It is obvious that there are government programs and charities that are designed to help the poor but a person who needs financial aid or support should go find help instead of waiting for help to come to them. Due to various causes, child poverty is an unfavorable issue world-wide that has harmful effects towards those involved and, although some say poverty is not an important matter, people need to become more aware of the situation and help the needy. To begin with, there are many causes of poverty but to be more specific, the causes of child poverty revolve around one key factor: family income, which distinguishes whether or not a child is considered to be in poverty. A family’s income depends on the level of education of the heads of the household, the state of the economy, and the family structure. The level of education is an important indicator of who will get what job and thus who will have a higher or lower income in a society. Work places tend to hire highly educated people because companies know that the more educated a person is, the more likely that person is to have a better quality of work. People who have only earned a high school education find it harder to earn as much money as more highly educated people since there is a “decreased value of wages earned by lower educated workers,” (Wood). Because of this, parents with low education have difficulties keeping a job and staying above the poverty line. Another imperative