Business Ethics Study Poerty in America - 1612 Words

Week 3 Case Study 3.3 Poverty in America Stacey Curry Business Ethics Upper Iowa University Professor Kalai McHan TRY TO TURN POVERTY TO POSITIVE In the time of the Great Depression back in 1930’s, where a time where four million Americans had fallen into poverty. Then in 2008 the economy experienced a serious economic meltdown crisis and recession, at this time 44 million adults now live below the poverty line officially defined as an income below $10,830 for a single adult or less than $22,050 for a family of four (Shaw, 2013 p.132). The economy today in my opinion, where poverty is still a huge impact due to the cost of living going up but the income is not changing and it appears people are digging themselves into bigger holes.†¦show more content†¦A major factor determining whether someone will end up living in poverty, education or skill level can make or break an income. Education plays a vital role in acquiring jobs, learning new skills, and bringing home necessities and comforts of life; also include overpopulation, and high stands or living. As it states in our reading, â€Å"most poor people in our nation---about two-thirds of them---are white, but blacks are about two and a half times more likely to be poor. Whereas one out of every ten white Americans is poor, one of every four African Americans and one out of every five Hispanics live below the poverty line† (Shaw, pg.133). As we can see with these statistics, race plays a major role in poverty. I think the causes of poverty fall both into structural and individual. Poverty is structural because its deprivation that is reinforced by economic and social barriers preventing access to skills, employment opportunities as well as better housing. Without economy today, a lot of people are living in poverty and unless our economy changes, I think the poor don’t have a choice but to live in poverty. On the other hand, it can also be individual as well because if you’re not willing to fight and try for your own well-being, then it’s not the economies fault you’re living in poverty. Even though this economy isn’t helping, that should be enough motivation for anyone to try anything possible to live a healthy poverty free life.