The Poor in America

At the dawn of the early 20th century, the American economy was booming. However, this came at a cost --- a widening social caste. A division between the rich and the poor, a division between old money and new money. Americans are fed the heroic stories of characters like Jay Gatsby who ascend from rags to riches. The American Dream. But in reality, the 1920s marked the beginning and the end of this illusory dream. As the Great Depression ravaged society, the poor have never recovered. And now 100 years later, after numerous economic downturns, failed government programs, and targeted legislation, the poor are worse off than ever. Unfortunately, in a progressive society where a variety of minority groups have pushed liberation movements, the poor have yet to receive the attention they deserve, notably as a tenth of the nation is below the poverty line.

So the question must be asked: what has caused this problem? And more concerning, what is still causing this problem? The answer lies in four factors in society --- the government, their social programs, the rich, and interestingly, the poor. From the government simply ignoring rising income inequality and immobility, social programs encouraging poverty through welfare traps, to the rich exploiting the poor and kicking down any climbers, and worst of all, an induced mentality where the poor are left to be crabs in a bucket, holding one another from prosperity. To truly understand where American poverty has originated, a deep dive into each of these factors is necessary.

In an article by Matthew Stewart in the Atlantic, the phrase “9.9 percent” is defined as the new American aristocracy, where America’s upper-middle class have isolated themselves, their children, their neighborhoods, and their wealth from others. Whether or not we realize it, we contribute to the problem as much as anyone and do it to a greater extent than our predecessors. So where does this leave us? The first step is to understand the problem and analyze how America got here. Awareness is the fundamental step to change, and for the poor in America, the problem is deliberately hidden. From redlining and gentrifying neighborhoods into run-down, isolated neighborhoods for decades to enacting legislation banning the homeless from staying in public areas, America has done a great job in hiding its poverty problem, and this must change. We are 100 years too late.

This website is structured into the 4 factors that supress the poor. Two pages are related to the the dynamics between the government and the poor, and the other two pages relate to societal pressures on the poor. Each page describes the developments between the specific entity and the poor and how their relationships have worsened over the years. On each page, we have a short skit that shows short scenes of how the poor had to struggle in the 1920s and how that has not changed in today's world. The page is formatted like an "article" with supplemental graphs and data.