Sunday, March 27, 2016

Lanise Florence Blog #2

Abramsky discussions “welfare, weight loss, and the invisible working class”. Discussed the War on Poverty in how much money the country is spending. Abramsky stated that in 2007 $41 billion was spent on pets. When it came to garden lawns $40 billion was spent. Then 12 billion was spent on tanning salon. But at the same time there’s a lack of jobs and homelessness still. It was also stated that the poor tends to lack in political and then become invisible. Abramsky goes to speak about a lady name Raquel. She was laid off doing the recession. It is interesting that very large amount of money is being spent on luxuries things and still cannot afford homes and to keep helping benefits open. Raquel was qualified for CalWORKs program. She receive $200 to $317 from the program. But the program was facing budgets and steady reducing their checks. Raquel had hard times feeding her boys. There was times they went hungry because there was not enough food. Raquel had many times when she had to ask the program for box of food. (2013.p. 102-104)

In chapter five “The Wrong Side of The Track” talks little about education and poverty. Abramsky makes a point about students living in areas that they have never been to and they live in these areas. At a school in North Las Vegas many of the students has not been to the Strip that many people from around the world come visit. They reward students who receives A’s and take them out on outings. Those who don’t attend school get bad grades and don't get award. Many because they have to help take care of home. Go home to babysit a young sibling or go work to help the family. With them doing that they cannot participate in school activities. They also have students who are homeless. The school send them home with backpacks filled with soap, deodorant and toilet paper. Those are things they need to keep themselves together. Many of these students live in these areas their whole life and never been outside their zone. With that being said it is a lot of things they cannot relate too. “At school there is only so much kids can learn. What you learn from most are your experiences.” (2010.p. 148) That is very true because you can read about a lot of things but experiences are different. Having an experiences you can never forget what you learned.


Another point was made about people in their dysfunctional lives. People having these dysfunctional lives come from being in poverty. Many people families grow up in poverty and never come out of it. Being in poverty not only have problems making ends meet but also personal problems. Many people become less of themselves. Staying in bad situation because they know no better or don’t see it getting better. A lot of people do what they know and do what’s around them. A lot of drug use and mental breakdowns happen in poverty. Sometimes society give up on people. Society don’t have to give up on the can give them the tools to become better. To help them become from a stereotype.   

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