Poverty is about not having enough money to meet specific needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Over 40 million people that live in the United States are impacted by poverty. Poverty has a huge impact in this world in many different people's lives, it plays a huge role in who we are as people and how we live and what our future can most likely turn out to be. It can affect many families due to them not being able to pay for education, healthcare, food, etc. Poverty can also have an impact on not just families, but as well as many individuals who seek for shelter and food and how they live their everyday life. In this essay I will be talking about how living in poverty can and does affect many different families and individuals in being who they are and how they live their everyday lives.
To start off, living in poverty does not only affect families and individuals financially, but it can affect them mentally and physically as well. In “The Effects of Poverty,” Child Poverty Action Group states, “Parents worry about the impact poverty has on their children, particularly that they may be bullied. Children living in poverty frequently report feeling excluded and embarrassed, citing it as a key source of unhappiness, and worry about their parents in turn.” Poverty is a sign of inequality such as many of those people in poverty won’t be able to afford the same things as others not in poverty such as clothes, food, education, healthcare, etc. This can lead to many people judging the way people in poverty smell, look, dress, eat, and how they live. The families and individuals living in poverty feel embarrassed and uncomfortable with all the crazy looks and glances and that affects them mentally everyday. It also affects them physically because they most likely won’t be able to afford healthcare and medicine, which takes care of the body or the right food to make them look healthy. This can lead to bad physical health and make many look too skinny and boney, making it seem as if they do not eat at all.
Poverty can also make people judge themselves. It can make them look at themselves differently and see themselves from other people’s point of views. For example, in the article “Mental health effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and teens,” American Psychological Association states that people in poverty “experienced significantly greater odds of suicidality, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, risky sexual behavior, and poor grades in school.” This shows that many think negatively of themselves because of this and also care what others think and this is how society has made it to be in today’s world. This can lead to people talking/thinking to themselves in a negative way such as thinking they’re too poor, too dumb, too skinny, too dirty, etc. This can lead to many of those people falling into a bad state of mind and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. This is surprisingly the reason many go off to not live such a good life or often be separated and more quiet than others. This also goes to show how much negativity there is in this world due to others thinking lower of people who live in poverty. Many people often think they’re better than the people that live in poverty just because they “live a happier life” or “have more money than they do.” This kind of mentality is what makes many think that we live in a cruel world.
The impact of poverty on families in my opinion is far worse than on individuals. Living in poverty can cause stress within the family, mostly on parents. According to “Poverty and child welfare,” Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies states, “ As with children, adults who live in poverty experience worse health outcomes, including higher mortality rates and increased risk of mental health conditions.” This shows how much stress the parents have on their shoulders. Stress is mostly on parents because they want to be the best possible parents for their kids, but struggle with not being able to properly take care of their children. This could also make it hard on the parents because it can lead to a lack of job opportunities and low wages. These low wages can lead to families living in far poorer and more dangerous neighborhoods. While the parents suffer with stress and guilt, the kids suffer as well with lack of education and possibly healthcare. With the lack of education, children won’t be able to do all the things that a normal kid would easily be able to do such as read, write, type, etc. With the lack of healthcare kids won’t be able to check their teeth cleaning at the dentist, eye tests at the eye doctor, and physicals to see how fit they are and for school sports. This can lead to not only the child growing up in poverty, but living in poverty as an adult as it is unlikely to escape poverty when born and raised living in poverty.
Although poverty is an issue that affects many people all over the world, there are some things that can help reduce the number of people living in poverty. This can include development programs, support services, and saving up money for things actually needed. Many people tend to waste money on things not needed to live in this world like fancy cars, nice looking watches, food that cost almost an entire paycheck, etc. Instead of spending money on things that make you look good and make you look financially stable, they should instead focus on one thing at a time, work hard, and only spend money on things needed. Things such as food, some nice, inexpensive clothes, and shelter are examples of things people need to pay for so that one day, those in poverty can be financially stable and they don’t have to wonder why all their money is gone.
In conclusion, poverty does and always will have its negative impacts. It has its negative impacts on families, individuals, and others who don’t like seeing all the poverty that exists in this world. No one ever wants to live in poverty nor does anyone want to be close to it such as having the risk of not being able to pay for things or having a loved one living in poverty. That is why many people work hard throughout all their years of school so that one day they will be able to acquire a good paying job and a healthy life. It sucks seeing how much poverty there is in this world and how cruel many could be because of it, but there’s a lot of it, and that’s the sad truth.
What inspired me to write this essay on poverty was seeing all the poverty and hearing how many people in this world have to deal with it. I did a lot of research but it wasn’t too hard given I could write about what I’ve seen on the street and on the internet seeing how people live in poverty. I used my outline so I could see what I wanted to write next and what words to include in the essay. I explored poverty through my essay. No authors or articles really influenced my essay, I just kind of thought to write about poverty and was influenced by seeing videos on the internet and the people living in poverty on the street. I have no experience with poverty, but I do feel really sorry for those people because I don’t think anybody deserves to live that way.