Poverty and Inequality as a Central Issue in the Campaigns - Essay Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Memo To: From: Policy advisor Date: 9th October 2012 Re: Poverty and inequality as a central issue in the campaigns The purpose of this memo is to inform on whether inequality and poverty are major problems that are faced in the United States today. The memo will also make it clear on how and why this seems to be the case. The number of people living below the poverty line is termed to be the highest since when the United States census Bureau started tracking the poverty estimates in the United States. It has also been noted that the gap between those earning the most and the earning of those earning the least has also continued to expand over time. Thus, over time the two aspects those are: poverty and inequality have been seen as major problems that are facing the citizens residing in the United States plus other countries all around the globe (Larry, 2012). Countries which have been found to have an elevated level of jeopardy to poverty are also the countries with high levels inequality. Not only are inequality and poverty interrelated, but anybody who needs to eradicate poverty ought to bring along the attention towards reducing inequality. Thus eventually the two problems will be solved. Most Americans are proud of their economic system, they tend to have the notion that their current economic system that is in place tend to offer equal opportunities for all the people in the country to live good lives. Their confidence is clouded, on the other hand, by the information that poverty persevere in many parts of the state. Government anti-poverty labors have made measurable progress but have not eliminated the problem fully (Larry, 2012). Correspondingly, periods of sturdy economic growth, which convey high wages and more jobs, have helped decrease poverty but have not eradicated it completely. Thus there seem to be an urgent need to deal with the two problems. The United States has a very large degree of inequality. Economic inequality in the United States has increased during the last two decades. Poverty and inequality in the United States can be accredited to the actuality that the there have been numerous loss of jobs in the manufacturing industry and alter in the distribution of income and taxation. These two factors have privileged the wealthy in the society and hurt the economic situation of the poor and those in the middle class (Jacob, 2008). In regard to this, the poor have become poorer whilst the rich have been able to accumulate as much wealth as possible. It is also believed that the two problems stems from problems in the American society that lead to lack of equal opportunity for all. These problems include racial, gender, ethnic, age discrimination. Lack of equal educational opportunities as well as health care, structural changes in the economic system. Through lack of educational opportunities some individuals are not able to get well paying jobs and thus they end up in lowly paid jobs which make it complex for these group citizens so as to provide support to their families thus leading to poverty (Hacker, 2008). In America some races tend to have better opportunities as compared to the others. All these problems tend to form this vicious series of poverty in which kids of the poor are often predestined to end up in poverty in their childhood or in the future when they become adults. In the year 2010, 46.2 million people that is; 15.1 % of the whole population are in poverty this is closely compared to 43.6 million in the year 2009 and 39.8 million in the year 2008. This has been the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of individuals who are living in poor conditions (Hacker, 2008). This seems to be the maximum poverty rate ever since the year 1993 and the largest numerical value in the list of individuals who are in the fifty two years poverty estimations that are available. Some census figures show that in the year 2010, the number of people in America whose incomes are categorized below half of the poverty line and it reached its highest in over 16 years. Approximately 20.5 million people or 6.7% of the populace are living in extreme poverty. Based on the fact that the two factors that is inequality and poverty are closely connected this indicates that the level of inequality in terms of their earning is also in the rise. The party ought to make poverty, inequality and expanded social welfare programming central to their efforts to win the Whitehouse. This is because there seem inequality, poverty as well as social welfare are major problems that are been faced in the country. This when the politician make these as the central issue to the election there will tend to gun more votes. This is because the individuals will fill that there core needs will ultimately be solved once the politician guns enough votes to enable him to enter the white house. In the view that they decide to expand social welfare programming there ought to be some strategies in place so as to ensure their success. Social welfare programs in the US come to the aid of U.S population. The programs tend to vary in eligibility requirements and are provided by various federal, local, states and also at the private level (O'Brien, 2009). They help in the provision of food, shelter, education, healthcare and money to the U.S society throughout secondary or primary education, grant to college education, unemployment disability insurance, grants for the eligible low wage employees, subsides for housing, food stamps, and pensions for the eligible person and health insurance programs that cover public employees. Based on these the presidential candidate can also aim at making this an issue to address after been elected and thus to will serve as a core issue in his campaigns. The major strategy that can be adopted in the aim of expanding the social welfare program is to require all children to have health insurance. Another aspect that is in line with this strategy is to prohibit most insurance companies from refusing to over insurance to individuals who already have pre-existing conditions and mandate that all employers to offer health insurance to the workers or at the same time to opt to pay into the health insurance fund for their employees. Another program that could be targeted for the expansion of the social welfare program is to increase capital gain taxes in individuals making more than $ 250, 000 a year while at the same time providing tax credits to those couples who are earning less than $200,000 annually. The target population when making this are couples who are at times parents, of the young children. This target seem to be most suited since the individuals under that age bracket tend to many and thus they will make a noteworthy significantly to results that will be obtained after the elections. Also based on the fact that measure is currently targeting the young generation that is the children, there is a high possibility that the target population will vote for such a presidential candidate (O'Brien, 2009). This is mostly based on the detail that he have a tendency to solve most of the problems that are been faced the young generation who are the potential influential leaders in the state (Soss, Fording and Schram, 2011). The target population will in some instances resonate messages, political advertisement or sound bites that will be based on the central issues of their campaign trail. In their message they will also tend to resonate some slogans that are related to the leader they are supporting. They will tend to reverberate these sound bites, political advertisement and messages in the aim of bringing in more participants into believing with their ideas and eventually voting for their preferred candidate. There exist a number of challenges that will be faced based on the messages as well as in the political advertisement that will tend to resonate. One of the major challenges will be opposition. This seems to be a major challenge in that in almost every election there must be opponents who tend to have different ideas as well as concepts and they will always proof to be better as compared to the other candidate. The other challenge will be based on the fact at times it will prove difficult to convince some of the voters of ideas and concepts that will be addressed. One of the major ways of facing the challenge that will be posed will be based on the fact that having better ideas as compared to your opponent. This will ensure that the ideas and notions that you are advocating for seems to be more favorable as compared to those that have been formulated by your competitors (Soss, Fording and Schram, 2011). Thus eventually more and more supported will tend to favor you as compared to the other party. This will be implemented in the aim of eradicating poverty and inequality and also in expanding social welfare programs. Works cited Hacker Jacob. The Great Risk Shift: The new Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008. Print. Larry Bartels. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. New Jersey: Princeton Uni Press, 2012. Print. O'Brien Erin. The Politics of Identity: Solidarity building among America's Working Poor. New York: State University of New York Press. 2009. Print. Soss, Joe Fording, Richard and Schram Sanford. Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberalism and the Persistent Power of Race. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 2011. Print. Read More