Poor Kids, Inequality And The American Dream

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Date
Poor Kids, inequality and the American dream
Question/prompt number: 2
LIB 133 sections
Instructor’s name
Word Count: 837
Jezza Neumann‘s “Poor Kids “focuses on the lives of poor children in the US through the eyes and experiences of three young girls living in Quad Cities in Iowa/Illinois, providing glimpses of how child poverty affects their lives (Neumann et al., 2013). The families face hardships, and the children have to do little with few resources. Many people do not know firsthand about the level of childhood poverty in the developed world, and this is partly because the issues of poverty income and wealth inequality are some that many choose to ignore. Even when these issues are highlighted there are attempts to frame this as class warfare and focusing on the ideals of the American Dream that everyone has an opportunity, and somehow people are partly to blame for being poor even as there are few well paying and decent jobs. The income gap is one of the major sources of inequality in social classes, but Americans largely ignore this, yet it affects social mobility.
The growing income inequality in the United States has a direct impact on the wealth status of the low and middle class. In real terms, incomes have been flat or negative salaries, and the cost of living has increased while wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. Furthermore, there is no broad-based support for public investment and social welfare to lessen the burden for the low-income individuals and families, which further widens inequality in the US. Even as millions of children live below the poverty line and sometimes goes without a meal, there is reluctance address how income inequality has increased the risk of poverty. Furthermore, people do not realize that the economic woes affecting Kaylie, Jasmin and Brittany and their families are widespread in the US.
Even as inequality has increased and there is growing interest on the matter, Americans still do not believe this is necessarily a bad thing. Since inequality is not regarded as a pressing matter, there is low enthusiasm for the government to get involved and try to reduce inequality. Similarly, there is a reluctance to support redistribution because the government is directly invoked in this, and especially, those who have little faith in the government. This is further complicated by indifference among politicians who believe that the wealthy are asking for too much and reduce the tax burden on wealthy, and argue this it is necessary to generate wealth and spur investment.
There are limitations to economic mobility, although the belief in the ethos of the American dream as one’s economic and social status is partly linked to their parents’ standing. Wealthy families leave wealth to their children and subsequent generations, and those poor in their childhood are more likely to be poor as adults than those w...