Persuasive Essay On Child Poverty

Despite having the largest economy in the entire world according to GDP, the U.S. shamefully owns the second highest poverty rate among the 35 industrialized nations that were examined in a research conducted by UNICEF (Adamson, 2012). There are multiple countries with fewer resources than the U.S. that have lower child poverty rates such as Hungary, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and the U.K. The extreme distinction between our economy health and child poverty rate is unacceptable and should be a bigger concern for our lawmakers. Child poverty reaps children of their future and greatly hinders their opportunity to succeed in life. Specifically, child poverty results in gaps in cognitive skills in babies. As stated by Children’s Defense Fund, “Poor parents have fewer financial resources and often experience more stress, and as a result their young children are less likely to be read to, spend less time talking to adults, and hear many fewer words each week than children from more affluent families.” Research shows that by age 4, children raised in high-income families had heard 30 million more words than children raised in poor families (theatlantic.com). This disadvantage can be observed in babies as early as 9
months old and often increases with age. More studies by Children’s Defense Fund show that children who suffered from poverty for half their life were nearly 90% more likely to turn 20 without completing high school than those children who have never suffered from poverty.
As proven by many countries in the world, commitment with the right policies is all it takes to aid this national issue. One example of this is the United Kingdom, whom succeeded in cutting its child poverty rate by half in 10 years despite the UK’s per capita GDP being almost tied with the GDP of Mississippi alone (countryeconomy.com). This proves that the lack of resources is no excuse for this moral disgrace. The issue we face today is due to the corrupt interests of our government. Politics commonly defeat good policy in our government; keeping the rich wealthier while letting the poor hopelessly dig themselves into deeper poverty. America is sought to be the land of equal opportunity, but the 15 million children suffering of poverty in richest nation on earth beg to differ.
Furthermore, there are multiple things that could be done to help reduce child poverty in America. To begin with, one of the main issues is that housing is too costly for poor families. Housing subsidies should be boosted in order to make affordable housing available. As mentioned on CNN, “Increasing federal housing subsidies would reduce U.S. child poverty by 20.8% ... That would lift 2.3 million kids out of poverty.” (Sutter, 2015). Increased investment in safety net programs for children such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) could also benefit a large portion of children in need. According to the CDF, “Basing the SNAP benefit on the Low-Cost Food Plan would reduce child poverty by 16 percent, lifting 1.8 million children out of poverty.” This change would not only benefit 1.5 billion more families, but also increase the benefits for the existing 11.1 million SNAP families who receive on average less than $1.40 per person per meal.
In addition, The Children’s Defense Fund released a report HOW TO REDUCE CHILD POVERTY BY 60 PERCENT that calculated the impact and cost of 9 changes to existing policies and programs that raise employment rates including both of the two mentioned above. They concluded that these changes would decrease child poverty by 60% and rescue 6.6 million children out of the poverty threshold. The costs of these changes add up to approximately $77.2 billion for one year. This is equal to 2 percent of our yearly governmental spending. While we all agree that adding to our national deficit is not the best idea, there are many things we can do to save enough money to cover this cost. Every year, U.S. corporations find loopholes that allow them to dodge in excess of $90 billion in federal income taxes by keeping subsidiaries in offshore tax havens (Grey, 2016). Terminating these loopholes would be more than enough to fund the changes to reduce child poverty by 60%. Another alternative to pay for these changes is to reduce our military spending. The U.S. is home to less than 5% of the earth’s population but accounts for 37% of the entire worlds military spending (NPP, 2015). Reducing our military expenditures by less than 13% would be enough to cover these changes and still leave the U.S. far ahead at the number 1 spot for military spending in the world.
Child poverty in America is a macroeconomic concept.
This is because the statistics are based off our country as a whole. Although it is a macroeconomic concept, it can be broken down into individual regions or states. This topic can especially be applied to Florida because according to the Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, Florida’s child poverty rates have been higher than the nation’s since 2008.
In conclusion, child poverty is a major issue our nation faces and needs to focus on instead of protecting the wealthy upper class’s wallets. The richest nation should not have one of the world’s highest child poverty rates; this is a clear indication of us ignoring a serious problem, and festers our reputation as the land of equal
opportunity.