Dear Future President,

Did you know that more than 46 million people live in poverty in the United States? That means that one in every six Americans are living a life of poverty. This is way too many people living life in what is a supposed “Rich Country”.

My mom, who’s a teacher at Dayton Public Schools, tells me that she’ll have kids who come in with backpacks hanging by a thread or students who don’t have jackets when the weather is cold. 1.6 million children stayed in an emergency or homeless shelter last year. 7.6 million children die every year before they even reach age 5, many from causes that can be prevented with proper immunizations, proper nutrition and adequate water and sanitation. These are some of the symptoms and effects that poverty can have on children. 15 million children in the U.S., about 21% of all children in the U.S. live in and with families that have incomes which are below the federal poverty threshold. Poverty can impede a child’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experiences deep and persistent poverty (NCCP.org).

Having to go through poverty as a child may be a traumatic experience and they may not have the same chances in life as a kid who has grown rich and never in or was in poverty. By this I mean children that were in poverty will have trouble finding a job later in life, maybe they even struggle to buy a car. 

According to PovertyUSA.org, one in every seven American households were food insecure last year. This means a lack of providing food, so this shows that some families sometimes went without food for days because of poverty. 42.2 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, including more than 13 million children. Based on annual income, 72 percent of all Feeding America client households live at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line. The median annual household income of Feeding America clients is $9,175. More than half of client households (54 percent) report at least one employed person at some point in the past year. Households with children headed by single women or single men, women and men living alone, and Black- and Hispanic-headed households, the rates of food insecurity were substantially higher than the national average, which is about 13.5%. In 2015, almost 59 percent of households that were included in a survey had reported that they had been in one of the largest federal nutrition assistance programs. The implication of trade and immigration for people in the United States who are subject to this competition, is that jobs are scarce and there is downward pressure on wages.

Others will argue that poverty can be and is a good thing for the United States. Most crime today is caused by envy, and since the truly impoverished have no possessions, so they are spared from being robbed. Given sufficient poverty, your health will bloom as a natural consequence. Since you can no longer afford cigarettes, booze or illegal drugs, gone will be the nagging smoker’s hack, hangovers and potential health issues caused by dirty needles. One major thing that’s a good thing to come from poverty is that your finances can only improve.

What I think you should do as the face of our country, is to raise tax rates for the rich and to cut them for the poor or impoverished people. I think doing this to start your four years as president will make your personal ID great to us, and maybe to other countries. A outcome to come from this is that you could save millions of people’s lives and be viewed as “America’s Hero.”