Poverty In North Carolina Essay

Poverty and homelessness remains a main concern in our society. Patrick Conway, of the Global Research Institute of the University of North Carolina conducted research on “Poverty of North Carolina.” The research illustrated that the national poverty rate was 14.5 % in the year of 2009, way below the North Carolina poverty rate. Poverty is still a rising and an ongoing crisis. According to a data set found in usda.gov for North Carolina in 2010, the poverty rate was between 16.9 to 22.4 %. Using the text, Nickel and Dimed by Ehrenreich, and other writing sources, students were presented with a scenario of living in poverty. In this hypothetical situation, the student is 21 years old, pregnant with a seven month old baby and has a one year old. In addition, the spouse is disabled and unemployed. In this
The menial paying jobs lead to mental instability which leads to poverty through medical expenses for prescription drugs. Ehrenreich in the excerpt Nickel and Dimed, states “The thinking behind welfare reform was that even the humblest jobs are morally uplifting and psychologically buoying. In reality they are likely to be fraught with insult and stress.” These insult and stress often cause depression leaving them unstable to hold on to their jobs and family. Studies have found that the low-income uninsured population had a higher prevalence of one or more psychiatric disorders (51% vs. 28%): mood disorders (33% vs. 16%), anxiety disorders (36% vs. 11%), probable alcohol abuse (17% vs. 7%), and eating disorders (10% vs. 7%) (Mauksch, 2001). Most individuals who suffer mental disorder resort to alcohol or drugs to relieve their mental and physical pain. Many find it hard to hold down a job and have difficulty managing finances well enough to stay out of poverty. Psychological illness and poverty are often intertwined; individuals who are in poverty often have psychological problems due to their unstable