Jose L. Macareno
Prof. Debbie Olson
ENGL 1301
September 17th, 2014
ESSAY 1 In “The Changing Face of Poverty in America” William E Spriggs asks how the nation became twice as wealthy but its children became poorer. He reveals that to put a face on American poverty, it is important to examine how poverty changes over time in United States (Spriggs A5). Spriggs summarizes that “the poverty in America is the result of three things: policy choices, political will, and moral conviction, or even its absence”. Furthermore, he questions why some people lack the income to rise above poverty; he believes that the reason is because “people do not work, or they work but do not earn enough money”. He enumerates that those people can be “elderly, the disabled, and children” by law (A5). He follows mentioning that have been created many programs like the “Social Security for old-age”,” Aid to Families with Dependent Children”,” Survivors and Disability Insurance”, and “the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families” (Spriggs A50). However, he acknowledges that “the wide divergence in how public policy treats different groups was not Congress’ original intent” (Spriggs A6). Spriggs explains that other reason could be “the relationship of child poverty and parents’ income to the increase in single-parent households”. He adds the two parents in a household usually earn more than one, but they are not assured the way out of poverty (A6). In the case of living alone, He shows how “poverty for women is higher than men”. He thinks that the best difference is “reflected among the elderly, where the life-long earnings of women mean that