Poverty Home

Talking Points

  • Poverty is seen as an underlying cause for a range of problems, including poor health and family stress and breakdown. Poverty exposes people to social and economic disadvantage.    
  • Vast discrepancies in quality of life for large groups of people in democracy limit productivity, increase crime, and can spark civil unrest.
  • Nearly one-quarter of all American children lives in poverty. Nearly one in two Americans is poor or considered low-income.
  • Welfare state programs—which include all public health, education, and welfare programs in combination with the taxes required to finance them— reduce inequality.
  • Safety net programs for poor and vulnerable Americans were created in large part by social workers in the 20th century.
  • Organized political efforts across the country now seek to dismantle many state and federal social programs that have kept millions more from falling into poverty.
  • In this economic climate of recession, alarming foreclosure rates, and high rates of unemployment, social workers serve increasingly more individuals and families for whom housing is the most pressing need and beyond their financial ability.
  • Homelessness often is a function of behavioral health and social challenges, exacerbated by the impact of economic issues.  
  • When individuals and families can access affordable housing, they have more ability to access employment, primary and behavioral healthcare, education, and to build social capital and supports.
  • Low educational attainment, low job readiness and low paying jobs are significant barriers to self-sufficiency for poor single women and their families.
  • Research shows that worldwide investment in women pays dividends. Poor women across the globe are more likely to put their incomes back into their communities, driving illiteracy and mortality rates down and GDP up. (World Economic Forum in Davos 2012)
  • No single solutions can "cure" poverty. Poverty must be combated on a number of levels to provide childcare, low-income housing options, mental health treatment, education, and employment opportunities.

Poverty’s Impact on Incarceration

  • Along with race and ethnicity, poverty is a common demographic factor among the 2.2 million people that are incarcerated in America’s jails and prisons.
  • A majority of inmates (between the ages of 18 and 35) in federal, local and state prisons have not completed high school. This means that they will be either unemployed or underemployed upon release.
  • Most inmates are from families that have incomes either below poverty or are among the working poor.

http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swMonth/2012/toolkit/poverty/talkingpoints.asp
10/7/2013
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