Assignment 21 - Eli Flomenhoft

Poverty is a societal beast that we tend to ignore. We overlook it so we don't have to deal with it. I know I am guilty of this. When I see someone begging for change on the street I tend to ignore them because interacting with them makes me uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable because this is such a huge problem in our society that is hardly addressed. I would like to be able to lessen the burden that impoverished people feel. Many people are uncomfortable with people begging for money because it reminds them of this horrible, life altering problem that is man made. Therefore people are uncomfortable around beggars because they feel shame and guilt for not helping. And rather than stopping and giving some change, many people choose to walk on by. I know that I do this quite often, and quite often I feel shame afterwards. So I think the solution to our collective shame as a society is to address this problem. Rather than push it to the back of the closet. We must address the poverty in this country in order to absolve the guilt we should feel at ignoring the impoverished. In order for a solution to be effective it requires government support. While it's true that government already has enormous social welfare programs, it clearly isn't enough. People remain impoverished. And if that's due to an irresponsible spending of government money on the peoples part, then the government must take steps to ensure that the money is spent responsibly. Such as educating people on how to budget and increasing food stamps. Also funding could be increased to homeless shelters to provide more space and better conditions. Adult education programs could be increased. The government could provide increased funding to technical and vocational schools to make them more affordable. Even if only one of these options helped the impoverished that would still be incredible. Poverty is a topic that makes us uncomfortable and that means something is wrong.