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Valerie Martinez SOC-220 4 October 2020 Professor Balfour Introduction to Social Problems According to Sullivan (2016), a social problem is defined as, “when an influential group defies a social condition as threatening its values; when the condition affects a large number of people; and when the condition can be remedied by collective action”. So, a condition that affects a large amount of people would be poverty. Poverty affects of 38 million people, most of which consisted of African American and Hispanic ethnicities (Semega, Kollar, Creamer, & Mohanty, 2020). Poverty affects millions of people every day. Some of the contributing factors to poverty are social class, bearing children, and health. Most people that hear the term poverty, think of people who are homeless and on the side of the street asking for money with their cardboard signs. Poverty is more widespread that what people see. Americans who live in poverty can live unhealthy homes that may have no access to clean running water or electricity. Some of these families have lived in the continuous cycle that seems unbreakable. Their families have lived in poverty and they bear children who grow up living in poverty as well. A contributing factor to poverty can be based on someone’s social class. Those who are well-respected upper-class citizens are the ones who are well educated and can obtain a steady job with good income. Not everyone can get an education due to the expenses they already do not have. The jobs that pay well are looking for a person who is well educated. Another factors that can determine if one falls in the poverty line would be those who bear

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children that they may struggle to nurture. That can be due to their income or their health. Health plays an important part in poverty. If one has ill health, they are more likely to have no income and health costs that leave one in debt for year or even until death (Gary, Dong, Samuel, Hung, & Roger, 2020). Conflict perspective best fits with poverty because it is defined as different groups who are struggling to attain the necessary resources they need to survive and thrive in the world we live in. The men, woman, and children who fall under poverty are not given equal treatment to obtain what they need to succeed or even make a living in their life. That could be due to were they are living or because of how they are seen due to their ethnicity, where they live, what their background is, and/or how skilled the person may or may not be. I chose poverty because I used to live in poverty as a child. I knew my parents wanted the best for us and hated hearing their own children talk about what others around us had that we did not. As a child I did not realize how hard it is for some to make a stabile income. My father lived in poverty as a child and hung out with the wrong crowd in order to try and make money for his family. He now has a record and he knows better now as an adult that what he did was wrong but he did what he did for his own family. As an adult he wishes he did not have a record because he knows that he has skills to get him a great paying job. Due to his record he got a lower paying job that is very stressful, but it got us by with a roof over our head and food on the table. I would say crime also goes in hand with poverty. With children and young adults looking for another way to help their struggling families out of the poverty line and into middle class citizens. For those who seek other ways that lead to crimes being committed for a chance to get out of poverty are increasing the statistics for high school dropouts, not furthering their education, thus never ending the cycle of poverty in their household. There needs to be more

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advocates for those struggling to make a living. All people need to be treated equally and fairly, giving the same opportunities that higher-class citizens have, to those who may be struggling to get out of poverty.

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References Gary Ka-Ki Chung, Dong Dong, Samuel Yeung-Shan Wong, Hung Wong, & Roger Yat-Nork Chung. (2020). Perceived poverty and health, and their roles in the poverty-health vicious cycle: a qualitative study of major stakeholders in the healthcare setting in Hong Kong. International Journal for Equity in Health, 19(1), 1–13. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s12939020-1127-7

Semega, J., Kollar, M., Creamer, J., & Mohanty, A. (2020, June 26). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html

Sullivan, T., J. (2016) Introduction to Social Problems, Tenth Edition. Pearson Education. Retrieved from: https://viewer.gcu.edu/vEbNCw...