Example Many Single Parents In California example essay topic

There is a very wide range of income for individuals and families in California. In our society today, we have 3 types of classifications of people. The wealthiest of people are called the upper class, then there is a middle class which is the average income, and lastly there is the lower class. The lower class is considered to be in poverty. Poverty is a condition in which a person or family does not have the means to satisfy basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Poverty is not determined by what race a person is even though many people in our nation categorize it that way.

Poverty exist everywhere in the nation, state, and even in our own town. There are many different factors that contribute to the poverty rates in California, from the increase of the unemployment to the decrease in government income maintenance programs. Even though the government offers many different programs for people in poverty there is still a substantial amount of people not being able to provide for their own families. The government offers social insurance programs such as: Medicare which provides hospital insurance for the elderly and disabled, and unemployment compensation which allows workers that are unemployed for a while to collect thirty-five percent of their lost wages. The government also provides programs that supply food stamps and welfare to the people that qualify for such programs.

The government spends about 736 billion of its dollars on these different types of programs. Poverty can be caused by many different situations. For example many single parents in California are in poverty. As you can imagine raising children with two parents is hard enough, so raising a child on your own can be more then a hand full. The average parent spends about 100,000 dollars on one child before the age of eighteen. Being a single parent you may be forced to work two to three jobs trying to support your children.

Another example is an elderly person who all of a sudden needs a very expensive surgery that their insurance will not cover. They are forced to pay for the operation for as the consequence would be death. This could put a person in a substantial amount of debt which would lead to poverty. As everyone knows there are homeless people across the nation.

In California homelessness is a huge problem. Being homeless is the lowest point of poverty that I can think of. Not only can you not support your family, but you can not even support yourself. These are just a few poverty problems we have in California. The government will try anything to get rid of poverty, but unfortunately there are many conflicts the government face by helping these lower class people. Some say the government is paying too much money out to the people, which would cause some to be too dependent on the government for their income instead of working for it.

Another conflict is that it is very costly to the government to keep paying for able-bodied workers. These government programs must be working because the poverty rate is declining each year. There are more and more people getting jobs and getting off public assistance programs. In my own opinion, poverty is decreasing because people are realizing that public assistance programs are getting tougher and tougher to receive. As you can imagine the government would want an equally divided community.

Hopefully soon our state and even nation will not know the meaning of poverty. But we must always remember what it was like so it will be harder to go back to. With every conflict we face as a community we must learn from it and come together to fix it. Every year more and more people are going to college which will provide a better future for not only the people but the community.

The choice is ours, what kind of community do you want to live in?