Thomas Fuccillo

2/9/16
English 3 - Vos
JRP Draft
Poverty is Restricting the American Dream

Everyone dreams of being successful in life. In our country, we call this the
American Dream, which is the goal that you can achieve a stable job, own a home, and
are able to provide for your family. Poverty is the sole killer of this dream. This is
because if you are in poverty, then you cannot afford the American Dream. Poverty is the
status given to people that earn an annual income that falls below the federal poverty.
These people cannot achieve the American Dream because they do not have the money to
do so. In the United States alone, 14.8% of the population fall below this line, this is
46.7 million people (Poverty in the US 2014). Many of these people are either jobless or
have jobs, which do not allow them to support themselves, let alone their families. There
are many contributors to poverty that restrict people from achieving the American Dream.
These include minimum wage, mental health health, education, the lack of government
aid, support programs and agencies, immigration, and the wage gap. All of these aspects
negatively affect poverty in many ways and do little to help people in poverty. The
Government should be doing the most to help the people in poverty, yet it does little,
which isnt making a difference. So why is this? Why is minimum wage and education
negatively affecting poverty? These are things that are supposed to either benefit or
provide benefits to people, so why are they hurting our nations poor people rather than
helping them achieve their dream. The bottom line is that 1 in 8 Americans live in
poverty (Merino), making under $19,971 per year, which is the income bar set by the

Government. That is roughly 46 million people. Poverty is hurting our nation more than
we know it. It imposes enormous costs on society, the lower productivity and earnings
of poor adults, the poor health, increased crime, and broken neighborhoods all hurt our
Nation(Merino). Poverty severely and negatively impacts an Americans ability to
achieve staples of the American Dream.