Poverty and Sociology Essay -- Sociology Essays

In 2010, ab pop 46.2 million plenty were considered poor. The nations meagreness rate rose to 15.1 part, whereas in 2009, 14.3 percent of community in America were lifespan in poverty (Censky, 2011). That is an append of 2.6 million people in 2010. In the United States, the federal poverty get an absolute legal community of annual income is frequently used to sic who is categorized as poor (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). Currently the government defines the poverty line as an income of $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four (Censky, 2011). In sociology, poverty bunghole be defined using two terms relative departure and absolute deprivation. Relative deprivation is a comparison between people and loving syndicate. With relative deprivation, people are considered poor if their standard of living is less than that of other members of society (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). Absolute deprivation is an objective measure of poverty, whereby people are cons idered poor because he or she is incapable to adopt minimal fundamentals such as food, shelter, health care and corporeal objects. Is it difficult to participate in society for those who live in an indigent life? many would say that people living in poverty are behind in our cultural movement that he or she lack the essentials to be on an equal level with the rest of society. Many theories have been applied to the issue of poverty with controversy over how and if the poverty problem should be addressed. Inequality, homelessness, and the liking of the American dream also has an solve on poverty. A theory of poverty promoted in 1959 by Oscar Lewis is the idea of a culture of poverty theory. The culture of poverty theory is an intrench attitude that can develop am... ...does not match reality since it is more(prenominal) of an ideology. The American conceive of is nothing more than a belief that explains and justifies close to sort of social arrangement, in this case America s social class hierarchy (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). A problem with the achievement of the American hallucination is inequality. Inequality rooted in race, social class and ethnicity suggests that the American Dream is not attainable at all. Sociologists found that no matter how severely an individual works or seeks out a good education, the mass will make little movement up the social class ladder at all. The American Dream does the opposite of what it is sought out to be it encourages consumerism and valorizes material wealth which ultimately leaves Americans in debt. With Americans going more and more into debt, there is an increasingly unlikely escape from their position of poverty.