Articles Analysis Example on Poverty

Poverty rates worldwide are significantly increasing over the last few years. “The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S poverty rate since 1960’s” (Saraiva and Tanzi). Thousands of deaths around the world per day are due to poverty related causes, if we do not aid the issue; the rates will continue to increase radically. How can we ourselves reverse the dimensions of poverty to decrease the rates? The three articles delve into some relevant information about the dimensions of poverty; low wages, inequality and political effects. 

The Article “Up Against Walmart” by Karen Olsson discusses some pertinent data about low paid workers, like Walmart staff members and other retail workers. Jennifer McLaughlin is a twenty-two-year-old Walmart employee who has a one-year-old she needs to care for. McLaughlin works 5 days a week, is considered a “high paid employee” and earns only $16,800 per year. With a salary that only pays $16,800 per year; you are lucky to be able to buy groceries for your family. “The way they pay you, you cannot make it by yourself without a second job or someone to help you, unless you’ve been there for 20 years or you’re a manager” (Olsson). McLaughlin does not have the Walmart health insurance that is offered, because of the bi-weekly costs; she relies on Medicare for her son. It is extremely expensive to pay medical bills without insurance, but with unrealistic wages, it is even harder to start a healthcare plan. Mclaughlin and a few of her co-workers decided to step up and start a union for higher wages, and affordable health insurance; but they failed. Retail workers in the United States are struggling to buy essential items with the current wages, and there should be an adjustment of wages, or more likely more families will live in destitution. “These are the jobs our kids are going to have” (Hesse). 

The article “Severe Inequality is Incompatible with the American Dream” by Alana Semuels states the effects of wages as the years progress, and how they have changed. Individuals born in the earlier decades have a higher chance of being wealthier than their parents when they grow up. Albeit states in the last 10 years, it is viewed as 50-50. “Inequality occurs when there is a disproportionate distribution of resources, wealth, or legal status in a society” (Tishmack). Half of the people that are more successful, have more assets to pass down to their children, such as paying for costly medical bills, university to achieve higher education, or hiring lawyers to access justice. Those three assets are very expensive, but are very beneficial in our society. When we lack access to wealth and resources that are essential, we enter a state of poverty. No matter if individuals view every person worldwide as “equal”, there will never equality in our society, unless wages increase vastly for variety of jobs. Because incomes have been stagnant for a relatively large proportion of society, it’s harder for people who stay within that chunk to beat their parents in absolute terms” (Manduca).