Immigration

While immigration is a huge problem here in the U.S., I do think that people overlook that a good percentage of immigrants actually benefit the country. My family is from the Philippines and my mom and most of my aunts specialized in the medical field solely to come over to the states. Like the title of Michael Clemens' article, I do believe that immigrants are an engine of prosperity, especially when they specialize in high demand areas like the medical field. Even if they aren't coming here for high demand jobs it does shut off that opportunity for them to use whatever skills they have here and lowers job creation.

I'm not really up to date on the issue of immigration and I think the latest I heard about it was the law passed in some state where if you looked like an immigrant they could stop you or pull you over to check you? Was this just a myth or was it really put into effect? Also what exactly is Obama's policy intending to do? Instead of  using money to protect the border between Mexico and the U.S, does he want to use that money and help Mexico's economy so that there are better jobs over there so they have a less pull factor to coming to the States?


Who do you think is poor in the United States and globally?I think that minorities generally tend to be more poor than the average american. Factors such as language, education, and skill come in to play big time. I think that over the years education has began to improve in a lot of countries, however it's still going to take a lot to reach the standards that America requires.
What do I think should be done? I definitely think that education should be a priority and countries should start having a curriculum that will not only help them in that country but everywhere.
**For some reason, I'm not able to get access to the film so I'll come back and update.**

Housing & Community Development

I really liked the objective of the MVI. I think that the government helps people in poverty in the wrong way. They provide them with funds for a period of time as long as they meet the requirements and after that time is up they're no longer able to recieve government assistance. So they're just hung out to dry really. I think the MVI has really good intentions and instead of spoon-feeding you, they really just help you get back on your feet and make life comfortable for you. That must be such an awesome feeling for some of those people. I think that one of the women in the clip made an awesome point: people serve their time and are able to come back into society but aren't accepted by society. This is a huge problem, especially if that person is seeking a job and can't get one b/c of their past. If you don't help someone move forward, they'll only be forced to stay apart of their past.

How well you think poverty is addressed currently in the United States and globablly.
I think that poverty is addressed immensly; people just don't want to be exposed to the issue if it's not something that really has to do with them. After this session I thought to myself, "does it really have to be the government that addresses this issue?" Could it start with people who can sympathize with people in poverty and are willing to make a difference in their lives. If every poverty stricken area had something like this in their communities, what would happen? How much would change and how many people would we see giving back to the community than "taking" from it?

This session brought me back to points that I mentioned in my blog post titled "Do Neighborhoods Matter." I came to the conclusion that Yes, they do matter and that's exactly how I feel about housing and community development. These things matter and as much as we ignore it, the worse it's going to get. The progress of the Urban Policy Plan seems like it's advancing and could be really beneficial to the poverty population.

Who you think is poor?
After this session, obviously people who have no other option but to live in low-income housing or people who were formerly incarcerated or that have some type of record that are denied the opportunity to work.

Social Security

I found this session to be really boring. I think that people don't need to think or understand money to benefit from social security. Part of their paycheck goes in to it, then when they are at retirement age they can start collecting money back from it. However for the majority of people, they'd be better off if they set the same amount aside that is taken in taxes and instead invest in long term safe investments. The whole system of social security is a sort of pyramid scheme and depends on enough money coming in to match the amount getting paid out. It wouldn't be a big deal except that too many people are getting benefits of social security without really having paid their fair share in. I don't think that social security is intended to equalize wealth. It's supposed to be a way for people earning money to set some aside and then take it back out during retirement.
What you think is being done about poverty? I guess that this is kind of a good way to help senior citizens who are in poverty. I mean it's not really a direct program for people in poverty however they do get to benefit from it when they reach a certain age.

Health Care Reforms

The issue of health care and the establishment of this new reform is something that I've always been on the fence about. I think for some people it may be too good to be true and for others it may be just be a bunch of bull. Coming from a conservative family, it's rare that I hear positive things about new policies or reforms that the Democratic party want to enforce. A lot of people in my family are so right-winged that they don't want to believe the democrats could enforce something so beneficial but after going through this session I really think they could. This SEEMS like a really great reform program. After listening to Gail's story and several of the other stories from people in states where parts of the reform have already been to take off, this program seems like it could be a miracle to a lot of people. I didn't really know much about health insurance since I'm under my parent's so I didn't know about the lifetime limits, the cancellation of your insurance, discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, or annual limits. However, like I mentioned earlier, this could just be something too good to be true so people will be in favor of it before all of the cons of the reform take action. Like Frake said in one of the articles we had to read "There is a lot in the rest of the bill that is incredibly onerous," he said. "You have heard very little about these things that are upcoming."

Why you believe people are poor in the United States? It's a money issue. There are tons of contributing factors such as lack of education, lack of skills, housing, etc. However, just imagine if poor people had money; well, they wouldn't be considered poor.

What you think is being done about poverty? There are plenty of things that have been done and are being done however poverty isn't an issue in itself-it's an issue within issues within issues. Those issues are being acknowledged b/c poverty can't be fixed directly; it just can't.

Policy Responses

I liked the approach taken in the film; bringing father's into the picture. Because you wonder, like, where are these dads? Selling drugs & doing them, in jail, with another woman, etc. and yeah, that's what most of them are doing. But why? I think the film did a good job answering this by following Thigpen's life. I think father's play a major role in a person's life; if you're a girl you may tend to look for that lost love in another guy/other guys and if you're a boy you'll turn to "the streets" like Thigpen said. It's true that some people who aren't in poverty grow up without dad's or have very distant relationships with their dad's but I don't think it's the same as growing up without a dad in poverty. Everything is just that much different when you're in poverty, because your outlets around your environment aren't good schools, or good jobs, or good people. They are the streets, the drugs, the crime and the people who are in the same living conditions as them.

Another interesting thing in the film was Angela Jobe's response to putting work aside for a little bit to further her education to get a better job. She was so against it and it made me wonder why wouldn't you want to do that? The woman that came to her house was in poverty just like her and got out of it because of furthering education. Does Angela really think that her work is worth that much even when her family still struggles? This made me wonder how many other working people in poverty have this same attitude and if they'd still have this attitude after meeting someone who could be an inspiration to them-someone who could identify with them and have been in their shoes.

I don't think that working women in poverty are an inspiration like Bill Clinton said. At the end of the day if the work that they're doing doesn't progressively help them out of poverty how will they ever become an inspiration?
How well do you think poverty is being addressed?
I think after this session poverty is being addressed as much as we hear about it, however I did learn that there is more to poverty than just the food stamps and other government aid such as Clinton's pledge to "end welfare as we know it"

Poverty and Wages

I was really intrigued by this session. I think that this is yet another thing that's overlooked when it comes to talking about poverty and what things we can do to help prevent more people falling into it. In one of the clips I think a good point was made about your work being worth it. I thought it was interesting to see that even if people are working full time plus over time, their yearly income is still relatively low. While raising wages isn't the resolution to poverty, I definitely feel like it would prevent people and families from falling into poverty. I've known people who have worked in restaraunts and location plays a major role in their overall income from their job. One of my friends worked at a restaurant in Buckhead, while the other one worked at a restaurant in Riverdale. If you've never heard about either of these places, Buckhead is in the top ten most richest area codes of the country and Riverdale's crime rates are increasing everyday. Needless to say, while they were both servers and making the same hourly wage, their location put their overall income on different levels.
Going back to how a couple of my peers described poverty as the homeless people walking around our school, this session sheds light on the hard-working people in poverty. It was good to be exposed to this b/c I feel like most people, and sometimes myself, fall into the assumption that all people in poverty are lazy and just want to be dependent on the government. One of the things my group and I learned through the budget exercise was that not all people in poverty rely on government aid however if they were willing to not abuse the aid, they could live comfortable lives and not fall under the poverty level.

Economics and Causes of Poverty

What happens to be more strongly associated with absolute poverty- family structure, income inequality or economic growth? Why do you think this is the case? Well the Economic Glossary defines absolute poverty as "The amount of income a person or family needs to purchase an absolute amount of the basic necessities of life. These basic necessities are identified in terms of calories of food, BTUs of energy, square feet of living space, etc." So based off of this definition and information from the book I'd have to say economic growth. 

What appears to be more strongly associated with relative poverty? Why?  Income inequality appears to be more strongly associated with relative poverty because even though living standards and real incomes have grown, the gains in income and wealth are being unevenly distributed.

What effect did family structure have on poverty? Was its effect on poverty stronger or weaker than economic growth and income inequality?  As stated in the book, family structure had a larger negative effect on blacks however from 1990-1999 all ties with family structure and poverty disappeared.

What did you say were the causes of poverty in your initial Perspectives Paper? Are any of those causes listed in the previous chart? I put that some people were born into poverty and others make themselves poor. I've heard a lot of testimonies of people who were once in good economic standing but put themselves into poverty. A few of the ones I didn't even really consider that were listed on the chart were language barriers or culture shock.

I thought the poverty simulations were great. Like one of the guys said it's a way to educate people the struggles of families. When you're in someone else's shoes rather than just hearing about it, you get a completely different outlook of the issue. While watching the clips I kept thinking about how chaotic everything looked, from the people to the noises. People in poverty are underestimated, they go through things like that everyday-sometimes having to stand in lines for hours or the whole day and get absolutely nothing accomplished. I feel bad for them because it's almost like a behind the scenes thing. We only hear and see and know about the homeless people walking around campus or the single mom with 3 kids or the 13 year old who robbed a corner store when there are actually people who are in poverty, that really are trying to have better lives for themselves and their families.