Paper Example on Social Issues Facing America Today

Introduction

A social issue is a concern in a specific community, it's a problem that affects a number of people in a given community. Social issues differ in different societies because of differences in cultures and societal beliefs, what could be a concern in one society may not be an issue in another. America currently faces various social issues including, poverty, unequal distribution of resources, high level of immigration, gender inequality, health issues, increase in crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, eating disorders, child abuse and sexual molestation, divorce and child support, gambling, environmental issues, LGBT rights, housing costs amongst others. This paper will discuss some of the biggest social issues that America faces.

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Poverty

Despite America having a stable economy, most of its citizens live below the poverty line (Ciment 1364). This number has been estimated to be between 13 - 17% of the population. In 2016, 40 million six hundred thousand Americans lived below the income poverty level, about fifteen million were children below the age of 18. The numbers are high in rural areas as compared to suburban. A small minority of Americans, less than 10 percent, control a majority of the wealth in the country. The poverty rate in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate. Recent data shows that half of America qualifies as poor or low income. Very few Americans invest in stocks.

The poor have shortcomings such as inadequate education and skills and are more likely to be from families headed by single women or immigrants with relatively little education (Edwards et al. 84). In 2016 the poverty rate was 26.6% for single mother family as compared to 5.1% for two-parent households (Census.gov, 2016). A number of people move to America every year with the hope of making money to support their families. The belief in underdeveloped countries that moving to America can help change the economic state of their families is overwhelming. With the increase in population, there's a reduction in the number of high paying jobs and thus contributing to the increase in poverty.

The middle class is slowly shrinking, income inequality has increased sharply over time, and the income growth of the rich has far surpassed that of middle and low-income companies (Edwards et al. 38). Every country needs a strong middle class to run the programs for the poor but America's middle class is growing smaller every day. This is mainly caused by the inflation and over-consumption. The need to lead a luxurious life, complete with designer clothing, has made most middle-income earners spend on what they do not need thus ending up in debts than saving. Most Americans owe more than what they own, they are in debts. Americans take loans to pay for housing, cars and other expenditures such as college tuition, medical bills, home renovations and at times vacations. These debts settle short-term financial needs but their long-term effects may prove to be a burden to these families including the high interests that are accumulated. A poor American has a car and a wider living space as compared to people in other countries. This does not mean that there are no extreme cases of poverty. Homelessness is a concern in America and a good number of American citizens depend on government support. The National Centre on Family Homelessness found that in 2014, 2.5 million children experienced homelessness in a year.

Poverty is a challenge that needs to be addressed or a growing number of Americans will not be able to feed in the future, an increasing number of people will have to rely on government support for survival. In 2016, United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 12.3% of household in America were food insecure. Both the government and non-governmental organizations should work hand in hand to come up with policies that will help balance income distribution, improve quality of education in low-income areas and insist on higher education and skill acquisition by the poor.

Gun Violence and Gun Control

Gun violence in America has a long history. In the recent past, debates on gun violence and gun control have intensified. An increased rise in urban crimes and assassinations of celebrities led to a call for tougher gun control policies. Guns contribute a great percentage to harm and deaths in America. Every year about 30,000 Americans are killed and 80,000 injured with guns. Guns account for 60 percent of all suicides and about 67 percent of all homicides (Ciment 806). America is one of the few countries where the right to own a gun is protected by the constitution. In the past ten years, most Americans have been killed by guns than those that were killed in combat by any method during World War 2 (Hemenway 1).

In the recent past, there have been several reports on the news on mass shootings, especially in schools. The media attention the mass shootings receive has been important to Americans as it has helped start conversations on gun control, though most Americans are still in support of protecting the right by civilians to own guns. There have been reports of police shooting unarmed civilians. The police in the US are also more likely to die on the job as compared to the police in other countries (Hemenway 3). Canada, New Zealand and Australia have many guns though not as many guns as the USA, these countries, however, have much stronger laws, therefore, doing a better job in regulating their guns. This shows that with restrictions and reasonable laws, gun violence need not be a major concern in the society. It also shows that it is possible to live in a society with lots of guns but has very few crimes committed (Hemenway 3).

Gun violence is a major concern in the society because other than the deaths, guns have other impacts to an individual and a society. These range from injuries, trauma to financial strains associated with violence. Gun wounds can be very traumatizing and at times lead to post-traumatic stress disorders. Eighty percent of gunshot victims report posttraumatic stress for eight months or even more after the incident. People that witness violence are also psychologically traumatized for months. Gunshot wounds can lead to permanent disabilities, brain injury and spinal cord injuries. The cost of gun violence is estimated to be about one hundred billion dollars every year (Hemenway 15).

The debates around gun control have been raised by people pro-gun control, those that feel the number of guns in public should be reduced, and those against gun control, they argue there would still be crime and violence even without guns. The control proponents argue that it is better than crime occurred without guns while those against control think that having guns would reduce the extent of harm because the criminals would be in control of the crime situation. The anti-control further argue that guns can be used by law abiding citizens to counter crime and for self-defense and thus outweighs their costs and the costs related to gun violence. Those against the counter that in as much as there's self-defense, having guns in homes lead to accidental shootings, suicides, and impulsive shootings. There are people that argue that disarming civilians would lead to fear and lots of dependence on government for protection and therefore instead of disarming civilians, there should be thorough background checks on individuals before they are given guns. This comes from the argument that only someone with a history of crime would use a gun to perform a crime (Ciment 806).

Crime

Crime has been a part of American history from the arrival of the first European settlers. Urbanization and industrialization have changed the nature of the crime. There is a shift in crime and the pattern in which they are committed, for example, in the 21st century there is a decrease in street crimes but there's an increase in occupational crimes. Unlike previously where criminals were mostly young male adults, there's an increasing rate of female and elderly offenders. There's an increase in technology-based offenses and rural crimes. As poverty and the cost of living increases, crime is on the increase.

Immigration increased in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, crime intensified. Most gangs grew in immigrant communities. Names of gangsters such as Al Capone, Charles Luciano, and Benjamin Siegel were popular during those days. Those years were characterized by violent gang clashes such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929. Casual drug use slowly became popular by 1970s. Resources were allocated to investigate and prosecute drug offenses, in as much as, the initiatives weren't successful as drug offenses continued at high levels through to the end of the twentieth century and are still present today.

Crime statistics show that there has been a steady decrease in crime since the mid-1990s, however, crime still remains a societal problem in the United States of America. Drugs and substance abuse is a major cause of criminal activities. Crime is higher in urban areas (Ciment 1803) and has grown into rural areas. The ease of access to guns in America is a major problem too as it increases violent crimes. Most crimes in the country are never reported and those that are reported are at times never solved. Crime is categorized into two, property crime and violent crime. It is sad that despite all the government is doing to curb crime and all the years that have passed, crime in the United States remain the same as it was in 1968. With the emergence of new trends in technology, crime has been made easy. It is now easier to access information, locate people, know what areas someone can easily sell drugs, children are easily influenced via social media. The media, in as much as it highlights crimes, has also been used to glorify crimes. The shows on drug trafficking, violence and the success that come from trafficking drugs could impact negatively on the youth (Ciment 1085).

Immigration

Thousands of people move to the United States of America every year, both legally and illegally. The number of foreigners living in America is estimated to be 13% of the total population. According to the 2010 Census, there are forty million foreigners living in the United States. This number includes naturalized citizens, they made forty-four percent of all foreigners as of 2010, temporary and humanitarian migrants, legal permanent residents and undocumented immigrants. People come in for work, education or visits. Some of them don't go back to their countries and decide to work in the United States. There are immigrants that come in as refugees escaping war or any other problem in their countries and then there is the diversity lottery that sees about 50,000 people move to the United States every year. Finally, there are illegal immigrants who come in through the borders illegally (Ciment 929). According to the 2010 Census, twenty-nine percent of the foreigners were from Mexico, eight percent from other Central American countries, and five percent from China (Walker et al. 23).

Immigration remains a serious social problem in the United States today. Immigration policies have been regularly debated on since the Nation's founding. The state of the economy, the effectiveness of individual spokesperson, social movements, racial views all affect the outcome of the debate year to year. There is a concern that the latest wave of immigrants may be economically burdensome and it would be difficult to assimilate them (Ciment 921). Immigrants offer a wide range of talent pool thus boosting the economy and often times immigrants are willing to work longer hours for lesser pay. On the other hand, they compete for jobs with the citizens of the United States and thus joblessness and poverty sets in. The demand for healthcare...