Poverty Could Be Anyone's Plight

As I look at the city in which I live and other places in the U.S., I ask myself these two questions. What has gone wrong? What can I do about it?

I have never felt as sad and as helpless as I do now. There has to be a way in which to help others that are in need. It seems as if poverty is overtaking most of the major cities in the U.S. and jobs are few and far between. This is an absolute travesty! Isn't this supposed to be the land of freedom and opportunity?

There are many parties that we could blame. Many blame the government, economy, big businesses and corporations and the individuals themselves. We can go on all day about the cause of poverty. We need solutions. The pursuit of wealth and power seems to be more important than goodwill toward humanity.

While it is true that success can come to anyone who works hard and has the will to succeed, it is not true in a lot of cases. There are hard working citizens that work hard to educate themselves and make themselves more marketable that cannot seem to get a fair shake. What are they to do? These people have to earn a living. They have families to feed and student loans to pay back. Where are their opportunities?

Many people attend school 2 to 4 years just to start all over again at the bottom of the rung. One will then find out just how important "networking" is. It is not what you know, its who you know. Instead of getting more pay, most get just a little more than minimum wage.

Speaking of minimum wage. What is that all about? Businesses and companies want happy, energetic, productive employees. What is there to be happy about when you work your fingers to the bone and receive after two weeks, a check that is already spent? How are your employees going to be happy when they have to look at their children and realize that they cannot clothe them and feed them and give them the quality education that they need?

It can destroy any sense of self-worth or pride that a person my have, therefore destroying family and communities. Does anyone think that maybe there is a direct relationship between employee satisfaction and company profit?

Then there's the flip side. While there is nothing wrong with being rich and successful-many have worked hard and deserve it-we must remember what it was like before we achieved success and be vigilant to the fact that this can easily become us. In such a turbulent time as this, with corporate downsizing and the transfer of companies oversees, our jobs can easily be sold across the border.

Then what. We will then understand the plight of the poor when we are wearing the same worn clothes and shoes and our children and ourselves cannot afford proper health care. Only then will it become a serious problem.

While there is no easy solution to poverty and the economic situations in our country and world, the first step would be to try and be apathetic to what people are going through and just help out wherever we can. If each person in the world would help one more that is less fortunate than they are, then maybe we will have a chance at changing things. I plan to.