cause and effect essayy ya diggg?

Poverty

            Poverty is an ongoing thing that is experienced by people all around the world today. Nearly thirty seven million people live under the poverty line in America. This number has been increasing greatly every year since the government started keeping track of the number of people under the poverty line in 1975 (Glasmeier). This poverty line or poverty threshold was developed by Mollie Orshansky in 1963. The poverty line is a way to measure the minimal level of income said to be necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living (Fisher). Every year this poverty line is updated by the Census Breuer to change it as standards or living costs go up or down through the years. The poverty line varies from the amount of people in the house hold. For example a family with three people, the poverty line yearly income is at $18,310, where for a single person it is $10,830 for the year 2010 (Poverty guidelines). There are many cause that lead to poverty, some of the top causes in America are, drug abuse, medical bills and lack of education.

            Having a lack of education has a major impact on poverty. Nelson Mandela stated that, "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world" (Poverty). Education is very important and plays a crucial role in getting a job, or learning new skills, or just advancing in knowledge. A lot of people that fall under the poverty line fail to complete high school or move on to further education at a college or school after high school. It is said that people with a high school education or less than a high school education are to expect a $16,000 to $24,000 income a year. Depending on their family size, these people with the lack of education could fall under the poverty line (“Poverty Causes and Effects”). These people with the lack of education don’t have the educational requirements for higher paying jobs. Working at minimum wage jobs is where these people in poverty will more than likely be at. Working at a low paying job causes the people under the poverty line to be poor because simply their income is not enough to have that adequate standard of living the poverty line measures. These people considered to be in poverty will struggle to afford food, transportation, housing and other necessities in life.

            Medical bills have caused many Americans to fall into poverty. When a person or a family member becomes ill or sick with a severe diagnosis, the treatments, care or operations for the illness costs a lot of money. A study conducted at Harvard University showed that the average debt a cancer patient in America faces, with insurance, is $35,878. And that is only at the start of their illness (Martin). In order to survive or to just try and take care of the illness the payments must be made. This causes the patient to be short in money for the other need in life and to fall into debt. In 2001 study called “Health Affairs”, stated that half of the 1,458,000 bankruptcies that year were caused by illnesses and medical bills (Medical Bills). These factors unfortunately push the person or family under the poverty line.

            Drug abuse is said to be the number one cause of poverty. These people involved with drug abuse end up losing their jobs because of their addictions. Not all drug abusers are poor or homeless but people in poverty are more likely to be involved in and have drug and alcohol problems (Poverty in America). These drug abusers end up spending all their money to support their habits causing them to fall into poverty. Many of these drug abusers go on welfare to be able to at least have some money for food, but many of these drug users end up using the welfare to buy their drugs.  Drug abusers slowly fall into a down ward spiral using all their money and doing whatever it takes to but their drug fix, pushing them into poverty (Moré).

            Lack of education, medical bills and drug abuse have caused people all over America to fall under the poverty line. About half of the public say poor people are just lazy and don’t do enough to get themselves out of poverty, but there is more it. There are people in poverty who are not doing enough to get out of poverty and some people in poverty are just faced with different situations and problems that cause them to be in poverty (Poverty in America).