Poverty in Rural America: Historical United States Educational Video (1965)

DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E1P87Y/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=d...

http://thefilmarchive.org/

Poverty in the United States is cyclical in nature with roughly 13 to 17% of Americans living below the federal poverty line at any given point in time, and roughly 40% falling below the poverty line at some point within a 10-year time span. Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Approximately 43.6 (14.3%) million Americans were living in poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million (13.2%) in 2008.

The government's definition of poverty is not tied to an absolute value of how much an individual or family can afford, but is tied to a relative level based on total income received. For example, the poverty level for 2011 was set at $22,350 (total yearly income) for a family of four. Most Americans (58.5%) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75. There remains some controversy over whether the official poverty threshold over- or understates poverty.

The most common measure of poverty in the United States is the "poverty threshold" set by the U.S. government. This measure recognizes poverty as a lack of those goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society. The official threshold is adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index.

Relative poverty describes how income relates to the median income, and does not imply that the person is lacking anything. In general the United States has some of the highest relative poverty rates among industrialized countries, reflecting both the high median income and high degree of inequality. In terms of pre-transfer absolute poverty rates, in 2000 the United States ranked tenth among sixteen developed countries, though 2000 was a 'trough' year and subsequently absolute poverty rates have increased. The US does worse in post-transfer absolute poverty rates. According to a 2008 report released by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, on average, rates of poverty are persistently higher in rural and inner city parts of the country as compared to suburban areas. The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is increasing to record levels with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

There have been many governmental and nongovernmental efforts to reduce poverty and its effects. These range in scope from neighborhood efforts to campaigns with a national focus. They target specific groups affected by poverty such as children, people who are autistic, immigrants, or people who are homeless. Efforts to alleviate poverty use a disparate set of methods, such as advocacy, education, social work, legislation, direct service or charity, and community organizing.

Recent debates have centered on the need for policies that focus on both "income poverty" and "asset poverty." Advocates for the approach argue that traditional governmental poverty policies focus solely on supplementing the income of the poor, through programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Food Stamps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_united_states

Category:

Education

Tags:

• poverty
• america
• facts
• statistics
• articles
• level
• line
• education
• crime
• books
• causes
• cycle
• defined
• during
• the
• great
• depression
• demographics
• essays
• effects
• factors
• health
• history
• housing
• usa
• jobs
• kids
• movies
• meaning
• united
• states
• documentary
• europe
• world war
• warfare
• germany
• england
• culture
• civil
• canada
• china
• museum
• australia
• nations
• russia
• kingdom
• japan
• spain
• rights
• asia
• human
• european
• nonprofit
• international
• community
• charity
• government
• announcement
• outreach
• local