blog 5

Identifying the working poor in the videos supports that this issue is a public issue by getting a public opinion. The working poor in our society are perpetuating this lifestyle on to their children. Public policies and laws are making in hard to break the cycle. From the video, people who were defining the working poor were describing people who were living pay check to pay check, using credit cards to get by, and not able to truly live debt free. The US has tried to help the situation by raising the minimum wage, but that causes inflation by these major corporations, and raising prices to combat wage increases. I think the way to remedy the situation is to put in place a few laws to restrict inflation with big corporations. The video “Poverty in America” shows the average budget for a family of 4 with an annual income of twenty- thousand dollars is a ridiculous situation for people to be in, and the US standards to apply for public assistance is way lower income level for a family of four. They cannot live comfortably within their budget means. Also, the video “Katherine Newman on America’s working poor” discusses the children of working parents are “falling through the cracks”. They are victims of the poverty cycle, and their parents can’t provide education after free public high education. A lot of the time they cannot afford to take the SAT’s, pay application fee’s or go to a school that can employee a school counselor that helps kids apply for college or helps them apply for financial aid.
Chaudry argues that “we are asking the less fortunate to strive and work harder, we are deeply discounting our public responsibility for the children born into poor families and disadvantaged communities”. Chaudry say this because the state of our lower working class is in dire need of assistance of government help. These children are being neglected, and are being raised by people at childcare facilities, and families are not receiving true public assistance. We need to offer the working poor child care assistance, and tax breaks from people in a certain income levels.