Excellent Poverty Blog Post

While perusing the 'net today - I found this excellent post. Most people don't think about how investments and foreign aid are actually used in the government and business of a nation more than in social programs and general welfare. This does create an imbalance whereby the money goes into places that want everything done as cheaply as possible in order to make the greatest profit. Thus creating low wages and high taxes. Then more money gets siphoned from the poor and powerless to the rich and powerful, a treacherous cycle.

I recommend reading this post.

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What do you know about going without?
Do you feel that you can understand what having nothing is about?
I have been living on these streets wearing the same clothes for weeks.
I don’t have money to wash my clothes and brush my teeth
But how do you know what is happening underneath?
I don’t get support from my family and that is real
Some don’t trust me around because I used to steal.
Most of my family is screwed up anyway
So I can’t expect to look to them for a place to stay.
I can’t eat when I am hungry because I don’t have money.
My kids getting fed is my priority.
My income is so far in the red,
Their lives would be better if I were dead.
You say that I need a job to support myself
But you don’t know the hand that I have been dealt.
We need a roof over our head that I can’t afford,
It doesn’t help that I have a criminal record.
Life is hard in itself and even harder on these streets
I just can’t seem to get back on my feet.
I can’t see my kids because I am unfit
But you place my child with molesters and people that hit.
Social Workers are quick to criticize
But they are the ones who need to be scrutinized in my eyes.
I got kids by a dead beat dad,
I had to work two jobs and pick and choose what bills to pay with what I had.
I know that I made some bad choices in my life,
But I didn’t make them by myself and that aint right.
Yes, shelters are there to help cope with the stress of homelessness.
They want to know about how much money you have and that you spent.
But do you know that they have the nerve to want rent?
It must be nice to have an education to be all you can be
But why do you think that I have no dreams when you look at me.
All you see is a bum begging for money to buy booze,
But did you notice the holes in my shoes?
What do you know about going without for weeks? What do you know about me?

-Anonymous

Consider This:

• In 2004, 12.7 percent of all persons lived in poverty.
  
• In 1993 the poverty rate was 15.1 percent.
  
• Between 1993 and 2000, the poverty rate fell each year, reaching 11.3 percent in 2000.
• Poverty has risen in each of the last four years.
• Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. In 2004, 24.7 percent of blacks and 21.9 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 8.6 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 9.8 percent of Asians.
  
• Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. In 2004, 28.4 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 13.5 percent of households headed by single men and 5.5 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty. In 2004, both black and Hispanic female-headed households had poverty rates just under 40 percent.
• There are also differences between native-born and foreign-born residents. In 2004, 17.1 percent of foreign-born residents lived in poverty, compared to 11.8 percent of residents born in the United States. Foreign-born, non-citizens had an even higher incidence of poverty, at a rate of 21.7 percent. In total, the foreign-born poor account for about a sixth of all poor persons.
• Children represent a disproportionate share of the poor in the United States; they are 25 percent of the total population, but 35 percent of the poor population. In 2004, 13 million children, or 17.8 percent, were poor. The poverty rate for children also varies substantially by race and Hispanic origin

* Now that you know, what can you do? *

• Get involved in advocating for clients on the state and federal level.
• Sign the Call to Action.
• Visit our partner website SWEEP and get more information.
• Bookmark this blog and be a part of our movement. This will allow you to talk with other people and do some networking.
• Write letters to people on the local, state, and federal level.

Remember: Action is the key to changing or eradicating any problem.

This fact sheet is presented to you by Social Workers to Eradicate Poverty. All information was obtained from The National Poverty Center.

Poverty--According to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars, as long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nations can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent. " Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.