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Government Assistance in Dealing with Poverty
In recent times, globalization has been the main point of focus. However, the process of immigration, in an effort to better living conditions, has led to an increase in poverty rates especially in foreign immigrant families living in the USA. This does not necessarily mean that immigration is the main reason for the existing poverty. There are other forces like unemployment, inflation and the global economic crisis. The federal government has set up a department in the system that develops and offers programs that enable the poor to live sustainable lives. The efforts by the government are quite commendable. The American government should not change the way it supports and assists the poor. The much that can be done is bettering the efforts thus offering more assistance to the poor before they become financially stable.
According to the presentation done by my colleague, there are several points, which on further elaboration, form the basis on the usefulness of government intervention in the poverty issue. Several programs listed in the presentation are developed by the government to assist the poor citizens.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The SNAP program offers nutrition to low income citizens and their families. Being amongst the largest programs in an effort to eradicate hunger, it offers economic benefits to those who qualify for the program.
WIC Program
This program is mainly for women, infants and children. It is educative as it enables women with low-income jobs or without employment to learn about nutrition, breastfeeding as well as educating mothers-to-be and new ones on nursing. Food assistance is also offered. Mainly the food provided is for the infants and children under five years old.
Housing Subsidies (Section 8)
The government has enacted laws under section 8, which implement subsidization of rent costs. The offered resistance is in form of vouchers to clear their rent arrears. An additional aspect is the provision of low-income housing.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
This type of assistance is provided for families living below the poverty line. This is mainly because they receive none or very little income. The main requirement for those who manage to secure this assistance is they should be looking for a source of income or employment.
Medicaid
Owing to the fact that healthcare in America is expensive, there are several general healthcare programs provided by the government to assist the poor. An example is Medicaid. According to research done, some families spend more money on healthcare than they do in purchasing groceries. The poor are provided with affordable healthcare where they can access medication and medical attention. The programs are designed for those with low income, elderly and impaired.
After evaluating the services offered by the aforementioned programs, three main aspects come into play. First, the government offers programs, which cater to all aspects of a basic lifestyle capable of sustaining any individual or family. Secondly, the poor are actually considered in the constitution and thus laws are implemented to ensure that their needs are taken care of. Lastly, the programs also follow up on the details provided by this category of citizens to ensure no fraud occurs. The efforts by the government are to be emulated by other nations. Despite the fact that the graphs on the child poverty rates, ethnic and other age group brackets show that the changes have yet to make a pronounced impact, the government should not change its method of assistance but rather improve on the available ones, as they are all round in terms of offering assistance.