Poor Kids of America (Child Poverty Documentary)
Introduction
The poverty levels in the United States of America has reached big-time records with more than sixteen million children affected. There are many Americans jobless and their children are developing the mentality of not getting long-term employment. Families are losing their homes and the demand for shelter and food is very high.
I got so emotional after watching the video. Tears are dropping from my eyes after watching how the mothers are struggling to take care of their kids under such conditions. Some of them does not have something to put on their table for the children. Kaylie, a 10-year-old girl finds it hard to deal with the financial difficulties that her family has. Kaylie says, “I’m just starving, we don’t get that three meals a day, like breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Kaylie brother, Tyler agrees that sometimes when they take cereal, they don’t take milk, so they have to eat the cereal dry. When there’s a cooking show, he gets hungrier and he wants to vanish into the screen and get the food to eat.
I agree with the statement that Sara stated that she does not believe in the American dream. The American dream is a belief that everyone, nonetheless the class someone is born into, the geographical location he/she is born can possibly achieve the success of their version in a society where each and everyone has the capacity to rise to a higher economic and social position. The poverty situation is limiting them to do the necessary things for them to raise their standards of living.
Poverty affects every aspect of a child’s life, their education, health and future prospects, all suffer. Since the year 2007, the number of homeless children across the United States of America has had an increase by close to half a million. Unless the US build more effective safety measures for its most vulnerable young citizens, a million more will follow.
Analysis
The statement if people work hard enough they will not experience poverty can be taken in different perspectives according to the individual involved. From the film, Kaylie’s grandmother has a master degree in accounting and for the last one year, she has been looking for a job opportunity. With that much education, she can’t secure a job to help her defeat her financial difficulties. Because Abraham Lincoln was born into poverty and through hard work, he epitomized the American Dream. This lead to the popularity of the belief that the poor people can be successful through hard work and some the Americans always blame those who are poor for their cause of poverty (Elias, 2016).
From the film, Jonny’s father lost his construction business, lost his home and then lived in a Salvation Army Shelter. After some period of time, the business was gaining its grounds and they moved to a better apartment. This definitely proves that hard work can drive away poverty in someone’s life. With hard work and persistence, Sara and her family moved to a better apartment that they have been dreaming for some time. Poverty rises due to the lack of opportunities and exposure, discriminating and prejudicing the poor, women and color of the people (Barkan, 2018).
Reference
Elias, R. (2016). Baseball and the American dream: Race, class, gender, and the national pastime. Routledge.
Barkan, S. E. (2018). The Conflict Approach. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems, 1, 241.
https://youtu.be/oOOkfVxkusc