“Where one lives affects the opportunities one has and the type of living one earns.”[1] The main four poverty regions in the United States are the South, West, Northeast, and Midwest. The region with the highest poverty rate is the South with 13.8 percent. The west has the second highest with 11.6 percent, followed by the Northeast with 11.5 percent. Finally, the Midwest has the lowest poverty percent with 11.2 percent. The main problem with concentrated poverty, also referred to as ghettos, is that it negatively influences its inhabitants. For instance, the index of drug abuse, crime, welfare dependency, and single parent households have a propensity to be significantly higher in areas with high-poverty concentrations. George Galster corroborates this statement in his publication, Do Neighborhoods matter? He states that children are the ones who suffer the most from growing up in this concentrated poverty neighborhoods. He presents the Nature vs Nurture theory and explains that it is not only about the way a family raises their children but also about the context in which the children are raised. He explains that most poor families live in metropolitan cities known for their poor school systems, thriving underground economies, and extensive crime rates and that this conditions encourage children to make wrong decisions. He claims that the best way to decrease poverty is to achieve a 10 percent or less concentration of poverty in any given neighborhood. “Concentrated poverty results from several factors, including past government policies, racial and ethnic discrimination, residential segregation, economic changes and employment dislocations, and the movement of prosperous residents to the suburbs.” [2]Concentrated poverty is a primary contributor the increase of the poverty rate in the United States. Successful individuals move away from home to live in better neighborhoods, taking with them their accomplishments that could serve to demonstrate that there is hope, but leaving behind a more noticeable population of drug dealers and criminals. In conclusion, poverty is a cycle, a child might be raised in a neighborhood where the only people who hold a comfortable lifestyle are the drug dealers, and those individuals are the only ‘role models’ these children see.
Absolutely right! Poverty is a cycle. Only a hand full can successfully leave from these concentrated poverty neighborhoods. Children are easily influence by their surroundings and like George Galster said, "It's the context in which the children and family are raised in that keep them in poverty." In a bad environment where drugs, crimes, discrimination exist, its difficult to ignore and not engage in crimes. I also like your tittle because it caught my attention. It's creative and very meaningful in such little words. I'd enjoy reading this blog. Good job.
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