Endless Hardship

Words: 758
Pages: 4

Trapped in Endless Hardship According to the United States Census Bureau approximately fourteen percent of Americans, 45 million, live in poverty as of 2015. However, due to the current system of welfare these 45 million Americans are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty. Sure, these people get benefits from the government, unfortunately these benefits are not what the people want. One instance of these benefits is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP. This program allows beneficiaries to buy food with government money. This is great to an extent, but many beneficiaries sell their SNAP for cash money to buy other necessary items (126). Due to some of these benefits, Americans are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty.
How
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Nowadays, nobody is climbing out of poverty and making their way into the middle-upper classes. The government can be blamed for this. The benefits recipients receive are nowhere near what is needed, and SNAP only pays for food and nothing else. If the government gave recipients the same amount of money in a form that can be used everywhere, people would begin to crawl out of poverty, they would be able to save their money, instead of it refreshing every month, with the saved cash, people have many more opportunities, they could save for a car, or an apartment, or even buy some nice clothes for a job interview. Also, in the United States there is a lack of affordable …show more content…
One way is “by selling plasma twice a week,” another is donating blood, and unfortunately some even sell their bodies (82). However, “Martha Johnson has devised a survival strategy that trumps” almost all in the Mississippi Delta. Johnson uses a portion of her SNAP benefits to buy bulk snacks to sell to residents of her government-built complex. This process is so simple, that most children will have set up a little shop in there time. But for Martha, this is a lifestyle, netting around four hundred dollars each month. This is just enough money to pay the bills and have a little left over for herself and her family. Unfortunately, whatever method is used, it will never be enough to get anyone out of