Dear future President,

My name is Grace Bruggers and I am a Senior at Judge Memorial in Salt Lake City, Utah. Poverty has become an increasing problem that has rapidly spread everywhere and must be fixed in order to make the world a better place for everyone to live in. Today in the US more than 45 million people or 15% of the population lives in poverty. In the US there are 15 million children that live in families with income below the poverty threshold. These are huge numbers of people and families with children living with not enough to provide for a sustainable lifestyle. Many of these families don't have an adequate home to provide for a family or dinner to put on the table at night.

There are many ways that this problem could be helped or fixed. I think that lowering taxes on the lower and middle classes would really help the people and families that can't afford to pay at such high rates, instead tax the upper class that isn't putting most of their income towards taxes. With taxes so high and minimum wage so low, these families are being directly affected and there is no way out for them. They are putting the majority of their income towards their high taxes instead of putting food on the table. By lowering the tax rate, those who can't afford such high tax rates and take care of a big family aren't using all of their income to pay taxes.

Another way we could help fix this problem would be to raise minimum wage. By raising minimum wage this would help lower the amount of families living in poverty. With the minimum wage we have today it isn't nearly enough money to live off of, let alone raise a family. Especially in my hometown, Utah has one of the lowest minimum wages at about $8/hour. This annual salary puts you below the poverty line and isn't enough to live off of and have income stability.

By lowering poverty rates this would help our economy tremendously and make it a better world to live in. As a US citizen, this problem needs to be fixed, with such a high percentage of our population living in or below poverty there is a huge amount of suffering. As our president I think these are things you could help fix and can only be resolved by someone in the hands of your power Please help us fix this rapidly uprising problem before we spin out of control. Thank you for listening and congratulations on winning the election!

Sincerely,

Grace Bruggers