Free Essay Sample: Poverty in California

Going by the cost of living, California is the most impoverished state in the United States. The essay aims to investigate the causes of poverty in California. The research will also strive to provide possible solutions to remedy this fact.

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Statement Problem

As it stands, one in every five Californian's is leaving below the poverty line (Miltimore, 2018). Poverty is affecting the community and the state. The state's leaders have spent over 1 trillion dollars since 1992 to date in the forms of solutions. Although there has been some improvement, California still trails other states. The reason for this can be explained by Robert Niskanen's model of bureau behavior (McMaken, 2018)

Research Questions

What are the causes of poverty in California?

What are some of the remedies that can be employed to mitigate poverty in California?

Causes of Poverty in California

The origin of poverty in California is the implementation of inadequate policies by California officials. Over the years, leaders in California have implemented various measures to alleviate citizens from poverty. Some of the steps include cash assistance payments, vendor payments, and other public welfare programs. According to Robert Niskanen, the existence of these policies has been the primary cause of poverty in California. The changes implemented in these policies have failed to yield positive results; thus, leading to poverty rise in the state. Although the implementation of welfare programs helps the leaders to maximize their utility, to eradicate poverty California needs to adopt quick solutions to optimize the efficiency of all the policy programs (Bohn & Bandy, 2017).

California has also implemented some policies that have increased the cost of housing and energy costs. An example of these laws includes affordable housing mandates, rent control, height regulations, and rising of the minimum wage. An excellent example of these is the policy to raise the minimum wage. While the plan is aimed to improve people's lives, it has led to decreased job opportunities. Fewer employment opportunities result in the overall fall of the living standards of the residents. The policy to raise the minimum wage that was initially aimed at improving people's lives ends up making it even worse for the same people.

According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, the reason why a majority of these policies has failed is due to the judging of systems by their intentions rather than their results (McMaken, 2018). The inappropriate judging has resulted in a situation where 14.3 percent of Californians lack enough resources. A family of four in this same group earns on average about 24,000 dollars per year. Overall, in the year 2016 four in every 10 Californians live near or in the poverty line. These numbers have been improving but not fast enough to alleviate California from poverty.

Possible Solutions to Poverty alleviation in California

Reduce dependency

The problem California is facing is not the lack of money but rather the dependency on government programs. The state's leadership should implement policies that push its residents to start focusing on individual income-generating projects to eradicate dependency (Vallas & Boteach, 2018). After helping California to achieve the level of self-employment, the administration should embark on the creation of job opportunities to absorb California's workforce. Job creation will be the fastest ways to eradicate poverty.

Implement well Thought out All-inclusive Policies

The state's leadership should work to cooperate with the local companies to develop comprehensive and beneficial policies. Both state officials and companies should ensure to create strategies that raise the minimum wage without causing the loss of job opportunities. One way of doing this is by working on policies that benefit both the companies and the workers (Lodge & Wilson, 2006). Companies with increased sales are more likely to raise the worker's wages. Merely implementing policies to boost minimum wage will and has resulted in companies being bullied to raise their worker's wages. Such a move has not resulted in an improvement of the living standards for Californians.

Support Pay Equity

Currently, women earn 78 cents for every 1 dollar a man makes. Working towards equity pay across gender would see the household poverty cut by a half. This one solution would also add about half a trillion dollars to the country's gross domestic product. Equal pay will help women contribute more towards catering for their family's expenses. Single mother families would also benefit from this policy. Implementation of the program would also lead to a decrease in the number of people depending on the state for financial assistance and other incentives. According to Vallas and Boteach (2018), the Paycheck Fairness Act can boost California's economy. For this case, leaders in California should formulate and implement policies that have long-lasting benefits to the state to alleviate poverty.

References

Bohn, S., Danielson, C., & Bandy, M. (2017). Poverty in California. Age, 18(64), 20-1.Lodge, G. C., & Wilson, C. (2006). A corporate solution to global poverty: How multinationals can help the poor and invigorate their legitimacy. Princeton University Press.

Miltimore, J. (2018). California Has the Highest Poverty Rate in America. Why? | Jon Miltimore. Fee.org. Retrieved 20 February 2018, from https://fee.org/articles/california-has-the-highest-poverty-rate-in-america-why/

McMaken, R. (2018). Why California Has the Nation's Worst Poverty Rate. Mises Institute. Retrieved 20 February 2018, from https://mises.org/wire/why-california-has-nations-worst-poverty-rate-1

Vallas, R., & Boteach, M. (2018). The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class - Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress. Retrieved 20 February 2018, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/