Sociological Perspective on Povery in the US (Essay Sample)

Poverty in the U.S.: A Sociological Perspective
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Poverty in the U.S.: A Sociological Perspective
The United States is among the wealthiest countries, yet many people live in poverty. This year, the condition has likely escalated as Americans grapple with the effects of COVID-19. With many individuals unable to afford a minimum standard of living, disparities in social-economic development occur, lead to poverty, and contribute to social issues. Among these issues, there is the proliferation of homelessness due to inadequate housing and the prevalence of under-resourced education systems that adversely influence children’s prospects. Also, unsafe neighborhoods lacking basic amenities and social services such as healthcare emerge. From the numerous theories on the cause and effect of poverty, sociologists agree that four define poverty in United States; however, they differ regarding the economic ordering and the societal structures attributed to advancing poverty in the United States.
From the numerous sociological theories interpret poverty’s causes and effects on various demographics, four emerge to explain poverty in the context of the United States. They are social policies, cultural norms, inadequate social capital, social stratification. Under social stratification, Beeghley (2015. p.1) notes that stratification and “unequal possession of resources affects people’s life chances and their ability to share in the available goods and services,” thus increasing their chances of ending up poor. Although stratification affects people disproportionately, the theory on stratification highlights the structural interactions between variables associated with poverty.
An attempt to explain sociologist’s theories has focused on America’s inner cities with some findings revealing the causes and consequences of poverty as being multidimensional. For instance, Desmond and Western (2018) categorized poverty into two; “individualistic approaches that explain variation in economic standing by reference to variation in personal attributes, such as education and social background” (p. 310). The authors contend that these attributes cause poverty across generations. The theory explains that the near predictable consequence of being born in a specific demographic and live in certain neighborhoods condemns many to poverty with limited chances to adjust one’s aspirations and condition.
In contrast, the theories on the lack of support from social capital offer a more comprehensive view of deprivation across multiple demographics. The lack of capital and social support among family members remains the most significant cause of poverty and constraint to social mobility. It inhibits access to education and economic resources crucial to its eradication (Lukasiewicz et al., 2019). In this context, poverty passes down between generations through inequalities from stratification that cause unequal income distribution and lack of access to the social welfare system. The social capital theory further defines social capital to include societal relationships among community members and family members. The theory ascertains the role of human capital, social networks, and relationships in improving the majority’s social-economic status.
In counter-arguments, some scholars posit that poverty results from social policies based on an incentive to fail. Some demographics, such as African Americans, show an unwillingness to work when offered social support. Under the social policies theory, it emerges that continuously giving aid capsules the poor in a cycle of poverty as the beneficiaries view help as an alternative to afford a decent lifestyle. Arguably, socioeconomic variables are not the cause of poverty, but a series of systems established in social welfare designed to make sure people stay poor by making them lazy (Chung et al., 2018). Besides, the social policies theory, as argued by some scholars, explains the welfare system’s role in advancing poverty among minority communities.
There is no single definition of poverty in sociology following the requirement for it to contain a morally imperative statement and a commitment to improve the solution. However, many sociologists explain poverty based on people’s ineptness and moral failings. To some sociologists, poverty occurs because of the unequal distribution of resources and opportunities in society (Roy et al., 2019). The definitions also extend to sociological theories, where some view economic factors as sustaining poverty. Sociologists premise this school of thought on the economical production and sustenance of inequality and its influence on a few elites’ power and status. However, a different school of thought exists whose views on poverty pivot on social inequality.
Overall, two ideologies explain the cause of poverty: personality traits and societal failing. Sociologists, among them DeFronzo & Gill (2019), argue that anyone can succeed if they work hard. The ideology stems from an analysis of the effects of meritocracy and the fact that suc