Imagine the feeling of having a whole family to take care of, but not enough money to provide for them. That is an issue that a lot of Americans deal with today. More and more people are beginning to fall below the poverty line. There are many different variables that go into why people fall into poverty, and there are a lot of things that can be done to make a change. Things like the way we talk about this issue in our culture, how our values shape the messages about this issue, and how socialization processes influence how we understand this issue. .
Poverty has been an issue in America for a while now, but it does not seem like it. For the most part, it seems as if the poor in America's media are invisible. That may be because nobody wants to see or hear about it, we'd much rather watch reality TV shows about superficial housewives. Anytime we do hear about the poor on TV or in the news, they are described as statistics, rather than as human beings. For example, look at this excerpt from an article on rt.com. "In 2011, 46.2 million people in the US were living in poverty and the nation's official poverty rate was 15 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009, according to the US Census Bureau. That figure appears to be the highest number seen in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been recorded." You can include facts and numbers, but when that's all you include, I feel like it has a dehumanizing effect on the poor. The media also presents these people as if it is their fault and they are poor because of their life choices. When, in reality, we all know that is not true. .
For the most part, schools are extremely careful about how they talk about poverty. .
Equality is one of Americas most cherished values, but you would never think that by the way we treat our poor. There are a good number of millionaires and billionaires in our country, but most of them are too greedy to even think about sharing their wealth with the poor.