How poverty in the United States challenges American principles of equality and opportunity by focusing on examples of race and class in family, education and/or workplace settings.
Despite the concerted efforts to maintain the national principles of equality and opportunity, poverty has continually been an adversary and a major cancer in the process of achieving and maintaining the principles. The national principles seek to keep the people of America at the same level of humanity but this has been undermined to a great extent by the persistent poverty.
As much as the Americans don’t often use class laden vocabulary such as the ruling class, capitalists, or lower class, a few poor people speak of themselves as lower class by referring to their race, ethnic group or geographic region. Class divisions are also evidenced by the rich who don’t like using the term upper class. The class differences between the rich and the poor are imminent in the country but are not in the domain of public conversation or debated in public just to protect the national image with falsehood. The fact that there exists affluence and prosperity on one segment while poverty persists in the other end of the spectrum is a good explanation for the existence of inequality in the country. The majority poor will always feel inferior and unequal to the few affluent individuals in the population. There exist a sharp contrast between the poor and the rich with a third of the American population living in one extreme end in affluence while the rest two thirds are living in miserable poverty. An economic example given by the fact that 20% of all Americans hold nearly 90% of the household wealth in the country at the expense of 15% of Americans who live below the poverty line. The class divide seems to be growing and fed by the emerging capitalist society, and this proves an absolute inexistence of equality in America: Inequality in persistent. The position in the economic ladder defines ones economic class: low, middle or upper. (The New York Times website)
Economic differences also define the different lifestyles for the upper class, middle class and the lower class. The classes could be named the haves, have little’s and the have not’s. Class goes past lifestyles and material wellbeing. It has an inverse relationship between class and our physical and mental wellbeing. The low class is characterized by such phenomena as high infant mortality, nutritional deficiency, mental illness and general poor health. The low income for the poor translates to poor everything. The life expectancy is also higher among the rich whereas it stands low among the poor who face high death rates. The low classes are also exposed to the possibility of crime victimization founded on their deprived state. It is class that defines ones chances of survival, education achievement and economic success. The rich have an absolute advantage over the poor in such areas of life. All Americans are faced with unequal chances to succeed than the other industrialized world. The inequality is further aggravated by the inheritance laws which provide built in privileges for the offspring of the wealthy to add to the likelihood of their economic success while crippling the others. Inequality seems to be a persistent feature of the America due to poverty. While the low class depends on their wages for living, the rich have massive sources of income such as stocks, bonds and lucrative businesses. This feature enables the rich to continue getting richer while the poor get poorer. (Dregory, 2012)
The capitalistic privileges that accrue to the wealthy are always to the disadvantage of the rest of the world. The government provides some disproportionate tax rates to the wealthy while reducing the public budgets and increasing the costs of public goods such as transport and education. ( Tom Dispatch website)
Among the forces of inequality, class domination is major because it keeps people confined by the opportunities afforded to them or denied by the system. The American class structure is a direct outcome of the capitalist system that is founded on private rather than public ownership of wealth.
Racism and sexism also contribute to the effects of class in the American society. The qualities of the lives of Americans are highly circumscribed by their race, gender and class into which they are born. . ( Tom Dispatch website)
The existence of poverty among some Americans is therefore a real undermining feature for the national principles of equality and opportunity for all Americans.
References.
The New York Times website,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/nyregion/for-poor-schoolchildren-a-poverty-of words.html?_r=0>The Tom dispatch website,<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175480/>
Dregory. Mantsios, Class in America,: Myths and realities, Gregory publications 2012, New York.
