Friday, February 20, 2015

Welfare in the community

As we have discussed in the previous chapters of Wilson, there are many factors that influence poverty.  Some of these factors were de-industrialization, depopulation, social isolation and concentration effects.  These factors do not only lead to poverty but they also lead to a multitude of problems in family structure. These factors lead to an increase in the rates of broken marriages.  These broken marriages have led to an increase of women taking the lead role in the family.  These women have become the main supporters of many families in these areas.  This has also led to an increase in out of wedlock births.  Many of these women are welfare dependent because of the fact that they are not able to provide the support needed for their families.  Most successful families have two providers, and since the families of these women only have one provider, they often require assistance.   These families are the ones requiring link cards, unemployment insurance, all kids, as well as many other programs.  Those individuals, who are on welfare, try to prolong their involvement in the program for as long as they can.  They feel that they need to take advantage of the free money that they are getting as long as they can.  They do not want to lose that source of income since many become reliable on this income. Although these programs aid in trying to keep families a float the entire United States is a welfare state. Programs such as social security and pensions for the elderly are forms of welfare that apply to everyone in the nation and not only to those that are struggling. Many people do not realize this and blame welfare in its entirety on those in poverty stricken neighborhoods.  Due to this their is a huge stigma attached with the word welfare. Many of the people in these communities are unemployed because of the poverty in these communities.  Due to the economic condition of these communities, finding a job, even if individuals were looking, are not easy to come by.  These individuals transition from jobs in manufacturing industries and start having to turn to self-service industries.  Industries such as maids, selling things in corners, and nannies would all be considered self-service industries.  Jobs that were once available tend to leave the city and migrate towards the Sunbelt and overseas.  Most minorities do not have the educational requirements necessary to get a job in the city or sometimes even minimum wage jobs.  Most of their places of employment are at fast food places, restaurants, or small factories. Occupations such as landscaping and construction are also mainly comprised of minorities because although they do not have the educational requirements, they are willing to do hard labor.  They tend to do anything they can to support their families.  Often times, females become the main supporters of the house because of economic deprivation.  Black male joblessness can also be tied to Wilson’s points about the development of poverty and social dislocation.  One prime example of this situation is the current situation in Mexico.  The country is currently suffering from economic deprivation.  Because of this, Mexican males leave their families in order to try and give them better lives.  They turn towards acts of illegal activity in order to provide for their families.  The cartels pay these individuals to do their dirty work and once they are done with them they are left jobless.  In the end many of these individuals end up dying and the families are left with female households.  I feel that Mexico is fueled by the increasing amount of cartel activity, not only do they intimidate the community but pay others for their services.  There are many articles online that talk about the life of a cartel member, many of these articles mention how they tend to not get paid enough for the people they kill but that is the only source of income that he can get, so he does it. A lot of the youth falls under the pressure of the cartel since these guys are there role models because they are showing the fancy things of life and they barely have enough to live in a house. This video is a great recap of what I have discussed previously. It's a lengthy video but it shows what the people of Mexico are actually encountering on a daily basis. Mexico does not have the level of welfare as the United States has, therefore leading into illegal activity . 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHPizv8IxlM

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