Poverty and Social Variables By Jamal Osman

1.      What role does the individual play in the fight against poverty?

Poverty has been a problem to human lives for so many years. Some factors of poverty are human-made while others are not. There are two kinds of poverty: deserved poverty and non-deserved poverty (Hartford, 2013). Hartford, the writer of “Roots of Poverty” says, “The deserving poor include orphans, accident victims, those with a debilitating illness, etc. for whom we should provide some ameliorative charity.”

The least thing you can do to curb poverty is not you to be a burden to society. Instead, you have to strive to work harder.  Just depending on someone else, due to laziness, alcoholism and drug abuse can cause you to be a poor person. In that circumstance, the person falls into the category of the undeserving poverty. In other words, if the person works hard, he/she can become a self-sufficient person.

2.    How do different social variables (e.g., race, class, and gender) impact poverty rates?

Discrimination and oppression against some races, religion or gender play a pivotal role in creating poverty in the society.

According to T.J. Sullivan (2016), "after the abolition of slavery, for example, African Americans experienced decades of severe oppression during which it was difficult for black families to advance from poverty." This, however, shows that some form of poverty in society is human-made and can be overcome with struggle and support from the whole community, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity.

Works cited:

Hartford, B. (2013, February 13). The Roots of Poverty. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-hartford/the-roots-of-poverty_b_2625943.html

Sullivan, T. J. (2016). Introduction to Social Problems, 10th Edition. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134054612/ 

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Problems By JamalOsman

This letter is to raise the issue of drug and alcohol abuse among our society which has been a social problem for a long time. In modern societies, drug and alcohol abuse have become very common, such that it has become an epidemic that affects the community as a whole. It all starts when the person uses overdose drugs or consumes a lot of alcohol every day. If measures are not put in place, it could cause a lot of health problems.

There are many factors that influence people in the drug and alcohol abuse. These factors include the biological make-up of the person (genetics), conditions at home, school or neighborhood influences and a person's developmental stage (CDC, 2017).  Also, the environment can be a major factor in influencing drug and alcohol abuse. For example, if the child grows up in an environment where elderly people have no limits in using drugs and alcohol, then the child can see this as a normal thing and start using it. Many people believe that stress, depression, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, accidents, natural disasters, and terrorism are also major factors that contribute to alcohol and drug abuse. These events can leave marks in their mind, and in time, people who are exposed to issues like this might be tempted to soothe their distress by leaning to addictive drugs (Futures).

Many of these problems can be handled and eliminated if the adequate procedures are followed. These problems can lead to the person to suffer severe conditions including serious illnesses like HIV/AIDS and sometimes, deaths. Drinking alcohol, particularly binge drinking, and using drugs like methamphetamine or cocaine can alter the abuser’s judgment, lower inhibitions, and impair decisions about sex or other drug use (HIV.gov, 2017). This social problem is also preventable.

There have been a lot of unsuccessful attempts to curb these social problems. In 1956, the American Medical Association declared alcoholism an illness that can, and should, be treated within the medical profession, and in 1989, it declared addiction involving other drugs, including nicotine, to be a disease (Kean, 2013). According to Kean, the root of the problem is twofold. First, most medical professionals who are being sought out to provide treatment are not sufficiently trained or experienced to diagnose or treat addiction. That was the leading cause of the failure of this attempt. 

To curb this problem, the medical professionals should have been given the resources they wanted and should have been well equipped. Embarking on such actions could have made their medical attempts successful. Meanwhile, there are other successful attempts that can reduce drug and alcohol abuse. Criminal justice can have a significant impact in reducing illicit drug and alcohol abuse. Law enforcement initiatives addressing substance abuse and related crime are now working more intimately with communities to solve local problems (DOJ, 2000). In other words, the law enforcement can play significant role in combating the drug and alcohol abuse

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In some cultures and religions, drugs and alcohol are prohibited, and if people are found using them, they can be disconnected from the rest of society. That can lead the person to be isolated and commit other bad things, including crimes. In some traditions, some people assume drinking alcohol is also addiction, while the fact is different. People with such mindset do not know more about the ramifications of alcohol abuse. To them, whoever drinks liquor or other types of alcoholic beverages, could end up an addict. It is a typical stereotype of a distinct society.

This is an epidemic and is costing us financially and physically. My personal assumption is that people who use any overdose of drug and alcohol lag behind other people in many social aspects. When someone gets addicted to drugs/alcohol, he/she will end up being ineffective. The end result will be negative contribution to society.

To deal with this stereotype, I’d suggest people should be educated and get the awareness they deserve. They also should know this is a social problem. For example, if people are educated about this social problem, that can reduce the rate of the drug and alcohol abusers.

To prevent this epidemic, I would suggest that there must be a full drug and alcohol abuse awareness to the public. This can be advertised on TVs, and the other media outlets since many of us use the social media which can be used to give awareness to the public. Since prevention is better than cure, strategies must be implemented to overcome the menace of drug and alcohol abuse. To those already addicted to drug and alcohol abuse, they can be given proper rehabilitation. This can be lessons about the bad behaviors, its causes, and the way out. These people must also be shown there is another right path that they can rebuild their lives. To do ensure that procedure materializes, there must be financial assistance involved. Therefore, my organization is requesting if there are any available financial resources to curtail this overwhelming epidemic.

America Housing Subsidy By Jamal Osman

For a long time, America has been describe by the media and researchers as a “Consumer Republic” mainly due to society’s massive consumption that catapulted after World War II.  To overcome the horrors of the Great Depression in the 1930s and rejuvenate the economy, the US Government embarked on tremendous efforts to encourage society to consume more by boosting industrial production (Cohen, 2004). According to Cohen, beginning 1965, the government initiated a program that gave preference to Veteran soldiers low mortgage rates. Male Veterans benefited more than their fellow women veterans, whites were given preferential treatment over blacks, while those in the middle-class status enjoyed better purchasing opportunities than the working-class. This unparalleled inequitable distribution of housing created social division by elevating one group of law abiding citizens over others.

While it is worth privatizing the housing industry, the absence of government involvement could set-off protracted inefficiency and inequity (Rosen, 1985). Efficiency implies better infrastructure that meets the required habitable standards while equity is relevant to fairness of land allocation among the diverse races that create communities in urban and suburban areas. Excluding the government in the housing market could be a harbinger for uncontrolled mortgage rates, racial divide, marginalization of the disadvantaged, and higher rental rates imposed by landowners or the banking industry that is the major financier of the American housing industry.

Since the United States is a nation of immigrants and one committed to alleviating poverty, the Subsidized Housing or the Section 8 Voucher Program that was initiated by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (US Senate 1974) has benefited millions of families especially the low-income and newly-arriving refugees from war-torn countries. Philanthropic and religious organizations took the mantle to prepare low-income housing for the millions of refugees and their families streaming into the country on a given time frame.

The Subsidized Housing and Section 8 Program substantially benefited many private housing developers. However, not every Section 8 Voucher holder got the type of dwelling befitting their preferences since whites became Suburbanites while the low-income fell under the Urban category. This systematic development ushered in racial subjugation and the lack of human integration. The concept of equality and equitable distribution of housing turned out unattainable. Government laxity to control privatization of housing could be blamed on such disparities among the heterogeneous communities that make greater America.

Without government regulatory constraints or involvement in the development of the private housing sector, private housing enterprises could set forth a recipe for busts and booms in a business that could eventually collapse due to inceasingly unnecessary supplies in the construction industry as happened in the 2001 bubble in IT bubble (Huang & Tang, 2012). While privatization of the housing market is vital as placing a cap on it would be tantamount to authoritarianism, underdevelopment, and a prescription for market failure, on the other hand, without government regulations, there could be unanticipated disasters such as overcrowding, landgrabbing, inhabitable infrastructure, discrimination, and other factors beyond human control.

References

Cohen, L. (2004). A consumers' republic: The politics of mass consumption in postwar America. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 236-239.

Huang, H., & Tang, Y. (2012). Residential land use regulation and the US housing price cycle between 2000 and 2009. Journal of Urban Economics, 71(1), 93-99.

Rosen, H. S. (1985). Housing subsidies: Effects on housing decisions, efficiency, and equity. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 1, pp. 375-420). Elsevier.