The Inescapable Cycle of Poverty in the USA
By: Maia Rice
Tags: Sociology, Anthropology, Socioeconomic, Poverty, America

America is known as the land of opportunity. It is a place where people, no matter their class or past, can live a comfortable life, as long as they work hard. People come from all over to try to achieve this American Dream. Little do they know, the country that is known so well for equality, is set up in a way that usually keeps the lower class from ever attaining this. Although it is the land of possibilities, for the lower class there are many obstacles they have to overcome to even have the opportunities. In many ways it seems like the structure of American society is against them.

The cycle of poverty is something that people spend their whole lives trying to escape. Oftentimes the cycle is due to a lack of education which leads to financial instability. Other times family issues or lack of transportation make it impossible for people to have a consistent job, leading them to unemployment.

The idea of poverty was examined earlier in the semester in “Jibaro to Crack Dealer: Confronting the Restructuring of Capitalism in El Barrio,” by Philippe Bourgois. Julio, a crack dealer interviewed on how he got there, dropped out in order to work. Education is expensive so many working and lower class people go into the workforce instead of going to college. They believe this is a seamless way to start making money without going into debt. No job is ever guaranteed so by doing an unskilled job, they don’t have to waste money on an education which may not help them get a job. The lack of education makes it hard to find work, and when they do, it is many times unenjoyable and low paying. Unskilled work is easy to get hired for but causes employees to be quite replaceable. This means it is much easier for unskilled workers to be fired and fall into poverty.

Julio, like many other people across the country, was pushed by society to work on the streets. He had dropped out of high school in order to work in a factory, with the rest of his family. American factory work significantly decreased after businesses realized they could produce merchandise at a lower cost by manufacturing it in countries where there were less workers rights and factory restrictions. In Julio’s case, this left him as an unskilled worker with a tough persona that made it difficult to work in offices or other places that he could qualify for a job. The streets embraced this strong personality and allowed him to work and gain respect. In an office job he would have almost no power and he would have been looked down upon. As a kid, he had wanted to achieve the American Dream, starting work early in order to speed along the process. Unfortunately because of this, society failed him and forced him into a situation where he ended up on the streets selling cheap crack cocaine just to get by (Bougois, 1995).

The fall to poverty due to companies outsourcing to cheaper countries is not uncommon. Tracy Boggs worked in a factory making needlecraft kits but after the company was sold, all production was moved to China. Because she worked an unskilled job, finding another job was difficult. The government paid to train her in the field of medical billing and coding, because there was a hospital in her town. Unfortunately she was unable to get a job there and other jobs looking for the skills she had learned were too far away. This left her unemployed and financially unstable (Cycle Of Poverty Hard To Break In Poorest U.S. City, 2012). Transportation is a recurring issue for lower class people. Car insurance, repair, and gas are expensive. Even the high price to get a learners permit or a license is discouraging. The lack of transportation greatly affects the opportunities for people with this problem.

Transportation was an issue for single mother Tammy Crabtree. Ever since she was a child, she had wanted to go to college to become a teacher. Unfortunately, as one of 22 children from a lower class family, this was not an option. She could not afford college and instead had to settle for unskilled work. Without money for a car, she would walk 10 miles everyday in order to work at a fast food restaurant that would pay her minimum wage. She mentions in the short 2001 documentary “People Like Us” that she feels trapped in this job. After working there for nineteen years, she was not given a raise as she deserves. Along with the financial issues, she also has judgmental society looking down on her. She works hard to support her two sons, and try to save money to follow her dreams but she is constantly harassed for her poverty. On her walk to work people yell things at her such as “white trash” etc, and her lower class appearance has probably limited her ability to get work. Regardless of the negativity pushed at her, she still has the dream of becoming a school teacher (Alvarez, 2001).

In a followup video that takes place in 2013, Tammy updates us on her life. In the 12 years since the first video, the only change in her job is the location. She still works at Burger King for minimum wage, not receiving a raise because of her age. The new job is only two miles away, as opposed to before but she still has to walk there due to the fact that she was unable to afford a car and license. She still has the dream of becoming a school teacher, but as a 54 year old with barely enough money to get by, this dream is unattainable. Her oldest son, who in the first video bragged about his plan to travel up the class ladder through dressing right and going to college, ended up dropping out of high school to raise his child, ruining his chances of becoming a lawyer as he had wanted years before (Alvarez, 2013). The circumstances of poverty didn’t allow them to achieve their dreams even though they worked hard.

As stated above, a factor that contributes to the cycle of poverty is life getting in the way. This is what happened to a woman named Desiree Metcalf. At just 24 years old, she has 3 children each from different fathers and has recently had her husband (who was not a father of any of her children) leave her for another woman. From the beginning the odds were against her. She grew up with only her poor single mother. After a fight with her mother and becoming suicidal at age 12, she was transferred to foster care where she bounced around. She went to 26 different schools and graduated high school receiving a full scholarship to a Florida college. Unfortunately her plans were taken away when she found out she was pregnant. According to Fessler, “this is not at all unusual for girls who’ve been in foster care. Nearly half become pregnant by the time they’re 19.” She was given a second chance to become a certified nurse assistant through a government program that paid $3,000 to train her. She finally was able to do the job which she had always wanted. As for Tammy, Metcalf also had transportation issues, her car was totaled and public transportation didn’t come to the rural area where she lived. Because she was unable to afford the repairs, her attendance became unreliable and she lost her job.

In order to become financially stable enough to get what she needs in order to achieve her goals, she asked the government for help. Government programs and charities supply her with daycare for her children, medicaid, and food stamps. Unfortunately if she gets a job and makes a certain amount of money, the assistance will be drastically decreased. According to Muller, who works dealing with welfare in the area where Metcalf lives, you can go to school to meet the work requirements to be on welfare, but only for a year and you can not get a degree in a year. Poverty has hindered her ability to live happily but it has also hindered her ability to live healthily. She has medicaid through the government but many places near her do not accept it. This has caused her to lose many of her front teeth. Society and the government have failed her regardless of everything she’s done to try to live a happy stable life with her family. Although her life is a struggle, she still tries to get by day by day, saying she still has her hopes and dreams to look forward to, they’re just on the back burner for now, (One Family’s Story Shows How The Cycle Of Poverty Is Hard To Break, 2014).

All four of these examples demonstrate how it is very difficult to get out of poverty even after working hard and trying everything you can to do so. This land of opportunity fails its own citizens yet it is framed as a safe haven for others to come to and prosper in.

According to the United States Census Bureau, poverty has been on a steady decline since 2014. This is probably due to the government aid programs mentioned earlier. Although they help some people, they are not enough to help everyone out of the cycle of poverty. In 2019 there were still approximately 34.0 million people living at poverty level throughout the country (Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019, 2020). These programs help the lower class, but often it is not enough to get them to a place where they are able to achieve their dreams. The American Dream is portrayed as something anyone can obtain if they work hard enough, but with the way that America is set up, if you are lower class, no matter how hard you work, it is hard to become financially comfortable and live out your dreams. Tammy Crabtree, Desiree Metcalf, and Tracy Boggs all ended their interviews saying that they are trying their best and still have their dreams to look forward to. Unfortunately this optimism is unrealistic based on the vast amount of socio-economic disadvantages in the United States. Poverty is often inescapable, regardless of a person’s efforts. Ultimately it comes down to the connections and opportunities you are given within your social class, not the hard work you do in attempt to earn them.

Bibliography:

Alvarez, L., Kolker, A., Odabashian, P., McCarthy, S., Miller, J., Cheeks, R., Myers, L., … Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (2013). People like us: Additional Scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs4_Zs2GvI

Alvarez, L., Kolker, A., Odabashian, P., McCarthy, S., Miller, J., Cheeks, R., Myers, L., … Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (2001). People like us: Social class in America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ZpauS5Doo

Bougois, P., 1995, Jibaro to Crack Dealer: Confronting the Restructuring of Capitalism in El Barrio, Berkeley, University of California Press

Fessler, P., Cycle Of Poverty Hard To Break In Poorest U.S. City. (2012). All Things Considered.

https://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155103564/cycle-of-poverty-hard-to-break-in-poorest-u-s-city

Fessler, P., One Family’s Story Shows How The Cycle Of Poverty Is Hard To Break. (2014). All Things Considered.

https://www.npr.org/2014/05/07/309734339/one-familys-story-shows-how-the-cycle-of-poverty-is-hard-to-break

Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019. The United States Census Bureau. (2020). Retrieved 14 December 2020, from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html#:~:text=The%20official%20poverty%20rate%20in,and%20Table%20B%2D5).