The
central idea or the premise of the book is making poverty awareness more publically
known. This book gives actual examples
of real life individuals living through poverty and what they have experienced through
the process. The book also discusses how
a few presidents have also tried bringing attention to poverty. The book states statistics on how many people
lived in poverty when certain Presidents were in office such as Regan, Clinton,
and Obama.
All
the real life experiences explained in this book have affected me. It amazes me how many poverty cases are out
there and there’s no way to help people rise upon. It really bothers me that a few presidents
have tried to bring attention to poverty but in 2016 it is still as big of a
problem as ever. In the beginning of the
book it talks about how a food pantry was out of food. That really breaks my heart that a food
pantry would run out of food and not be able to supply the poor with enough
food to get by. One case really hit me
when a man named Jim Ziliak commented that he can either heat his house or feed
the kids. When it did get cold enough that
he had to turn the heat up a little more the kids would cry because they were
so hungry. To make a choice to be warm
or full would be a very hard decision. There was one couple who lived on a farm and
couldn’t afford food or heat and had to live off of Tylenol. It is hard to realize that there are people
who live in America and they are not living the American Dream.
The
government has taken some actions to combat poverty in the past. Without food
stamps, and government assistance some families would be worse off. Even though statistic has shown decline in
poverty there has not been enough significant improvement. There has been no too little income growth
when it comes to the poor and middle class members. On page 51 of the book Abramsky wrote “There
is, after all, a reason that Swedes-who receive quality education, healthcare, childcare,
vacation times, and pensions courtesy of their government- tolerate far higher
taxes than do Americans.” (Abramsky, 2013). Why can’t American’s actually get
their money’s worth from their taxes? Maybe
our government needs to look into how other countries govern and see if they
shouldn’t re-evaluate the way the US does things.
Nikki Niemann
No comments:
Post a Comment