Poverty

The way social classes are in the United States make it very difficult for people to move up in the structure. Many Americans do not believe in social classes, as we are a country of equality; however it is quite obvious that one does exist. This existence of a social structure can make poor people poor, and rich people stay rich. It is easy to believe that poverty can be the result of the weakness of the individual; however, in many cases people do not see that it is actually the result of the social structure.

History takes a toll on the American social structure and helps shape it into what it is now. From centuries before, "African American are vastly overrepresented among those Americans whose lives are the most economically and socially distressed," (Ferguson-Oliver pg. 304) they are a part of a majority that we call the underclass. There is a relationship of race to wealth that we must examine. From our history, the long years of slavery has put African Americans at a great disadvantage. During those years, slaves were not allowed much freedom and this limited their economic rights, "slaves were by law not able to own property or accumulated assets. In contrast, no matter how poor whites were, they had the right - if they were males, that is - if not the ability, to buy land, enter into contracts, own businesses, and develop wealth assets that could build equity and economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their families" (Ferguson-Oliver pg. 307). This limitation and inability to accumulate wealth and assets during these years as slaves, accounts for the low wealth development among African Americans today. African Americans have 'paid more into the system and received less' unlike their white counterparts. For instance, they have made contributions to social security, earning less than whites, however they were, on average, taxed on 100 percent of their income, while their white counterparts earned a considerable amount of untaxed income. This goes in speaking of retirement benefits as well. They earn a lower retirement benefit and moreover, it does not extend very long as blacks have a shorter lifespan than whites. In addition, the benefits are hardly shared as a large percent of black women are single, divorced, or separated so they cannot share a spouse's benefit, "social security ... it is a prime example of how the political process and sate policy build opportunities for asset accumulation sharply skewed along racial lines" (Ferguson-Oliver pg. 308). A lot also depends on the family we are born into. If wealth was in the family, one has a greater chance of accumulating wealth, and if wealth still exists in the family, one has a greater chance of staying that way. Wealth is accumulated largely by earnings and earnings depend on a number of factors: education, experience, and skills, just to name a few (Ferguson-Oliver pg. 306). Going into more depth, we see that from the start, members of the upper class receive many advantages from birth. They receive the higher education from the beginning throughout their entire educational years From preschools to boarding schools, even in home tutors and special classes all add up for them to enter prestigious universities and colleges. It is easy to believe that the education you receive in college can pave the road towards the rest of your life and which is all the reason why one should attend the best colleges there are. Of course this is more easily said than done as one would need the high SAT scores, the high school report card and GPA, and among other things that would depend on the education that you received earlier during Jr. High that would then depend on the family you were born into to make you attend such a high education from childhood (Ferguson-Domhoff pg. 291). As we all know, rich people to rich things, like joining exclusive social clubs. It is a place for one type of people to hang around - the rich, where initiation fees and annual dues might be the same amount as a middle-class person's paycheck. Whether or not you like going to the social clubs does not depends very much as most would feel the social pressure to just join since they can afford it, "some belong out of tradition or a feeling of social necessity... others mentioned a feeling of social pressure" (Ferguson-Domhoff pg. 294).

As obvious as the existence of a wealthy class, it is even more obvious that poverty exists in America. Other than the occasional disaster that would