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The problem of poverty and social inequality in the US online essays

Traditionally, speaking about the US, people do not think of poor people, instead, it is a kind of Promised land for thousands and millions of immigrants from all over the world who fleet to the US in hope to find the better life and new job opportunities. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of this romantic or simply desperate people are doomed to get disenchanted by the severe reality they encounter in the US, the land of their dreams. Basically, what they can encounter is the problem that is well-known for a considerable part of American citizens living in this country for several generations. In spite of all its richness and economic prosperity, the US still suffers from the problem of poverty.
Millions of people constitute the lower-class or the class of people who have very low income that cannot provide them with the sufficient funds to maintain the normal life. In fact, the lower-class of American society cannot survive without the assistance and financial aid from the part of the state and charitable organizations. This large class of Americans represents another side of American reality, which is traditionally hidden from the wide public. As the matter of fact, poverty in the US is determined by the objective socio-economic factors and it is the natural result of the economic development of the US which specialists (Rae, 1981, p.228) characterize as highly liberal capitalists economic development. It is worthy of mention the fact that many Americans cannot improve their social status and they are doomed to live in poverty, though it is necessary to emphasize that the army of poor Americans is constantly enlarged because of the migration from other countries of the world, especially Latin America. online essays
It has been already mentioned above that the US is a desired destination for many immigrant who basically arrive in this country because of economic reasons in attempt to find better job. This means that they enlarge the lower-class from the moment of their arrival because they are unable to get integrated into American society immediately, they are low-qualified, they have children they should support but can hardly to, and they have neither money nor household nor any other property in the US.
However, it is necessary to realize that the problem of poverty is not the problem of immigration. In stark contrast, immigration is one of the contributing factors but not the primary cause of poverty in the US. In actuality, the poverty in the US is the result of the enormous social and economic disparity in American society and, what is probably even more important, it is the result of the lack of equal opportunities for all citizens and people living in the US (Spicker, 2006, p.186). Even though it sounds a bit paradoxical because the US is traditionally viewed as a highly democratic country, the country of equal opportunities, in actuality, its people do not really have equal opportunities, though formally all Americans have equal rights and liberties but the problem is that they cannot realize their rights and liberties or, to put it more precisely, they do not have opportunities to fully benefit from their rights and liberties.
In this regard, children seem to be the least protected category of people in the US, because poverty strikes the least protected categories of people and the less capable an individual is to earn for the living the worse his/her social position will be in the US. Consequently, children, being deprived of an opportunity to earn money heavily rely on their parents, but the latter can hardly afford living in the US themselves and, in their turn, they rely on the support of the state and charitable organizations. Alternatively, poverty pushes people to commit crimes and nowadays specialists indicate to the very disturbing trend, when crimes are committed by minors, mainly adolescents (Braveman, 2002, p.143). Juvenile crimes became a serious problem, which, in its essence, is provoked by poverty.
On the other hand, it is necessary to realize that the environment dramatically affects the development of children and children living in low-income environment face a serious threat of being influenced by the anti-social environment and crimes committed in their neighborhood. In such a situation, specialists warn that children living in the poverty stricken urban areas are particularly susceptible to the negative impact of their social environment where crime rates are very high (Braveman, 2002, p.217). In fact, crime becomes a norm for many children living in these areas. Therefore, from the beginning of their life consciously or not, they are practically forced to commit crime either by their environment or by poverty simply to survive. Thus, children, who often commit crimes at the early age, ruin their life perspectives and opportunities and, in this regard, the growing juvenile crime rates are very disturbing because they indicate to the deterioration of the situation in poverty stricken areas.