As I read the lesson this week on social class, which according to Weber is a large group of people who rank closely to one another in terms of property, prestige, and power, I read that the poverty line for a family of four in America is about $22,000. So I will be basing my poverty level family budget on that number. I learned that there are seven basic items that construct a budget. Those items are rent and utilities, food, child care for children from about age 4 to age 8, transportation (owning and operating a vehicle) , health care, taxes, and other necessities, these necessities include clothing, supply and personal care. Family budgets represent the amount of money a family needs to manage at a basic level. These budgets are not based on what families actually spend, but rather on the realistic costs of the seven basic items that constitute the budgets. (Sylvia A. Allegretto) .
Some of the budget costs I plan on basing on personal experience and research and also I will be doing a monthly budget. For rent and utilities I estimate about $850, and then we have food for a family of four which I will put at about $250, child care I estimate $200, transportation $150, health care $150 and other necessities I estimate at $200. .
While researching the topic of poverty I learned that the city of Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of deep poverty. Also Mariana Chilton, poverty expert at Drexel University, stated a very important fact about those living in poverty she explains some of the consequences about those living with in the poverty line, "toxic stress, social dysfunction, violence in family, potential drug addiction, and poor education." Although some of these may be true in some cases but we also see some inter-generational cases, which refers to the change a child's social class from his or her parent It can an upward or downward change. For example a child may live in poverty but work his or her way up to college and become a lawyer with a good stable income.
