What Is Class Based Oppression

Class Based Oppression Living in America means that you are living in one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Knowing that, why is poverty such an outrageous percentage of where we live? Poverty in America is not just the people we detect on the streets scrounging for anything possible. Poverty in America consists of families working minimum wage jobs just to keep clothing on their children and a roof over their head. Poverty in America consists of living in a community where education isn’t up to standards. Poverty in America consists of being reliant on welfare to afford rent. Not realizing the percentage of individuals and families that are barely surviving because of their class is common for many Americans. Oppression is known
The annual income for an individual living alone to qualify for welfare is under $12,140. Even with getting an income of this amount of money a year is not enough to pay bills like rent, utilities, food and clothing which are the basics needed for survival. Many people who are not knowledged about what welfare is offering believe that enough money is being given out that people who are reliant on welfare get to pocket extra money and put that money towards extravagant things. However, this is not the case. A majority of the people who are reliant on welfare in America can barely afford many things that fall under the category of necessities for survival without being homeless. A 36 year old man who is reliant on food stamps stated, “I think for a majority- it’s mainly hardships where they have absolutely nowhere to turn. And an innumerable amount of the people that I’ve known that do get help, it’s just temporary, until they can get going on their own again” (Rank 12). People who are reliant on the miniscule amount of money given by the government know that the money they are receiving is collectively temporary. People on welfare need to prove that they are on a search for a job and are making every effort to find one and most are not taking welfare for granted. Families and individuals reliant on welfare are barely getting by, let
Being reliant on welfare for one person whom is living alone is laborious enough. Being a single parent and having to become dependent on an insufficient amount of money is even more strenuous. Parents always try to construct their children’s lives to become more suitable than their own. This is much more grueling for welfare reliant parents, substantially for a single parent who are reliant on a welfare check. A scholar once said, “A number of studies have shown that children raised in poor families are less healthy and worse off in terms of their cognitive development, school achievement, and emotional well-being”(Amato 83). Therefore, it is almost impenetrable for parents to help their children expand and give them all the necessities they need when they can hardly get by with just paying back standard bills. Children who grow up relying on welfare tend to be worse off than children who have parents with a steady income. Another scholar stated, “Several studies have found that differences in the home learning environments of higher income and lower income children account for up to half of the effect of income on the cognitive development of preschool children and between one-quarter and one-third of the effect of income on the achievement scores of elementary school children” (Duncan 190). This is an