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Soc 120 Week 9 Final Paper

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Soc 120 Week 9 Final Paper
Poverty and Children in the United States

Yvonne White
SOC 120
07/23/2010
Cary Peterson

The United States is known as the wealthiest nation in the world. When poverty is mentioned most people think of this occurring in developing countries. Everyone has come across someone in the United States suffering from hunger, homelessness and other forms of poverty, but few people may have realized it. [pic]Poverty in the United States is quite different from the images often[pic] seen on television [pic]in[pic] other [pic]developing[pic] countries (Cole, 2005). Instead of homelessness and starvation, [pic]poverty [pic]is a malnourished child whose parents do not have the earning to provide healthy food for their families. [pic]Another face of[pic] poverty [pic]is a hard working single parent that is working full time and still struggles to provide the family with food, [pic] [pic][pic]shelter, clothing or even a car. Although the United States is the wealthiest nation, poverty is still an issue (Freeman, 2005).[pic][pic]In the United States childhood poverty is said to be a very alarming problem. It affects [pic]every person in this country, regardless of economic status, age, race, or gender. In 2001, 11.7 million children, or 16.3% of children in the United States were poor[pic] (Freeman, 2005). [pic]Children represent a disproportionate percentage of the poor population. They make up 35.7 percent of the poor, but only account for 25.6 percent of the general population (U.S. Census Bureau,[pic] 2006). America must make it a priority to see that the adequate attention is being given to the problem of all the children that are living in poverty. These children are our future and need us to provide the resources, encouragement and resources they need to get out of poverty.[pic] [pic] Society categorizes an individual into the poverty group when there is not enough income to meet the basic need of food, clothing and shelter. Food, clothing and shelter are not



References: Cole, H (2005). Poverty in the United States. Retrieved April 9, 2008, Web site: http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=350 Frank, L (2006). Child Poverty in America. Retrieved April 12, 2008, Web site: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-53408461.html Freeman, W (2005). Children in America. Retrieved April 11, 2008, Web site: http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/vol7no2ART1.pdf Summers, T (2005). Poverty and Children in the United States. Retrieved April 11, 2008, Web site: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/placeatthetable/uspoverty.shtml United Census Bureau, (2006). Poverty. Retrieved April 12, 2008, Web site: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html

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