Blog Post #2- Haley Muller

Through examples and real life experiences, Abramsky makes it clear that families across the nation struggle to afford housing. It is hard enough for some families to even reach close to above the poverty line. Homes in certain states have mortgages that are far too much for the family to handle. Abramsky writes about the many reason people fall into poverty whether it be sickness, job loss, or a crash in economy everyone has a different reason. Frank Nicci, for example, lost his leg to an infection that was correlated to his diabetes. Him and his wife made only $20,000 a year (Abramsky, 2013, p. 113). For families with sick members such as the Nicci family, it is a challenge to make enough money month to month. It is sad that many members of today's society struggle to make enough money to pay for their housing. To struggle to make enough money to pay for housing is enough let alone paying for food, a card, children, etc.

America has a tendency to spend money on frivolous and unnecessary things. On page 102, Abramsky states the numbers of how much money Americans spent on their pets, lawn keeping, plastic surgeries, and weight loss products alone (Abramsky, 2013). The numbers are in the billions per year. It doesn't help that some politicians look past some of the largest problems in poverty. Many people in today's society have a sense of a diffused responsibility in that they think other people will help those who are in poverty so in turn they don't have to. Abramsky states "it is easy to be an armchair critic of those who rely on government assistance to denounce them as crazy, manipulative, lazy, or dysfunctional..." (2013). For the Americans that spend their money frivolously and not wisely in turn could be helping those who have fallen into poverty in so many ways. I think that this book does a good job, especially in chapter 5, when informing the reader of how much money Americans spend on what they want instead of what they need.

Benefits are available to people who qualify for them but that isn't to say that it is easy to attain those benefits. In the book Abramsky talks about how in a certain state those who received unemployment had to volunteer their time to receive it. At another point the book says that certain states make citizens undergo drug testing to qualify for welfare programs but don't require the elderly to be drug tested to qualify for social security so how is that fair? Those who earn social security often find that social security alone is not enough to live on and they will struggle to make ends meet.



Reference:

Ambrasky, S. (2013). The American Way of Poverty: How the other half still lives. New Work, NY:
Nation Books