Poverty and Public Policy

Poverty is one of the serious problems that America is facing today. American families were having a difficult time meeting their family needs before the recession. The continuing unemployment and increase cost of living, more and more families are forced to choose between necessities like health care, childcare and food. Government policy either directly or indirectly affects the level poverty. This paper will provide data from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Poverty rates for different Group and how public policy affects those different groups. This paper also examines how the supply of labor skills can vastly affect the poverty level nationally.

According to Economics: Principles, Applications and Tools by O’Sullivan Sheffrin Perez, the poverty rates for African American and Hispanic are more than the poverty rates for whites. In 1980’s and mid 1990s the poverty rate for all African American and Hispanics was approximately 30 percentages. This percentage dropped in 2000 to 22.1 percentage for African American and 21.2 percentage for Hispanics. However, by 2010, the poverty rates for both African American and Hispanics had risen to approximately 27 percentages. In an Anne Arbor News article “Why Michigan Can’t Fill Its 76,000 Job Openings” by Nathan Bomey; the number of jobs that require a degree is expected to rise between 2008 and 2018, but the number of jobs that require only a high school diploma will rise by just 1.4 percent. This maybe due the aggressive welfare programs designed to help the poor, but instead traps them into a state of dependency on the national dole. Some may argue that these welfare policies incentivize people not to work. A study by the Cato Institution finds in 35 States it is more cost efficient to live off the State than to find an entry-level job. (FOX News reporter Bret Baier)

Labor skills and human capital makes the significant difference on the income level one can achieve. Advances in technology also have decreased the demand for less-educated workers and increased the demand for college graduates (Economics: Principles, Applications, and Tools). According to Money Careers explains even with more than nine percent of unemployment there are still jobs for people with the right skills, experience and education. Registered ruse, Computer system analysts, web developers, and computer application software engineers are the jobs whose demand is increasing every year. These job’s employees make $79,700- $110,000. On the other hand, fast-food employees makes federal minimum wage $7.25 an hour. An increase in the demand for registered nurse, software engineer and web designer shifts the demand cure to the right, moving the equilibrium wage from initial demand curve to new demand curve.

The data presented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated a total of 101,000,000 people are currently participate