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Taylor Roberts
English 114B
Stephen Topf, prof
April 14, 2014
Poverty Essay
In the book The Postmortal there is a lot of social criticism towards society and
how things may possibly turn out in the future. All the despair, tragedy and terror is happening
right now in the world, it just hasnt gotten to the extent of how it is in the book, yet. The author
is showing that if things dont change the problem will get worse. Poverty is happening all over
the world and is happening now. The government should create more jobs and stop cutting
government funding and using majority of it for things such as weapons and TV programing
because the government is using more money for weapons then to help the people in poverty.
According to Hellman and Kramer the national security budget in fiscal 2013 will be nearly $1
trillion. According to the US government spending website in 2012 they spent 24% on defense
but they are only spending 22% on pensions and only %12 on welfare to help people that are
living in poverty. The government is using most of its funding for weapons and things for war
which also promotes violence. People are already violent and the fact that they are seeing the
government spending so much money on things that create chaos, destruction and tragedy thats
what people see and they are seeing that the government is advocating violence and putting fear
into other countries. I agree with the criticism that Drew Magory presented in his book. He is
letting people know what is going on in the world right now and how it can get worse. The
people should have a voice on the money they are working for and how it should be spent.
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Even though the poverty in America is not as bad as it is in the book, I believe that Drew
Magory is foreshadowing what could possibly be our future. Majority of the issues that he is
saying in the book have happened or are starting to happen now. According to the news 10 Milk
prices could go up as much as 60 cents in March due to supply and demand issues. In the book
the price of water went up to five dollars. There are more people struggling then there are rich.
Majority of people are having a hard time making ends meet and finding ways to provide for
themselves and their families. There are so many children starving and with no shelter and they
cant do anything to provide for themselves. Some of them are orphans who dont have anyone
to help them get clean food or water. They also cant afford an education so they end up growing
up and staying in poverty if they survive. In a lot of countries there isnt even clean water
available. In an article on Global Issues it says 1 billion children live in poverty. 640 million
live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water. 10.6 million died in 2003
before they reached the age of 5. This is not only happening in America, but all around the
world, the issue is global. This connects to the book when it says We noticed that our food
supply was growing smaller and smaller(235) and City orphanages are now waiving all
adoption fees in hopes of getting more people to adopt abandoned children(162). The book
shows how food, water and other necessities were becoming harder to get making the prices go
higher for the things you need in order to survive. Water became $5 in the PM because of the
scarcity of resources. In the real world we are experiencing this same problem. Prices of
groceries, water, gas and other things that people need to live. Gas prices in America have gotten
so high that people can afford to drive and go to the places that they need to go. According to the
NBC news The average price for a gallon of gas rose in the last two weeks thanks to rising oil
prices. It is getting harder to live and more people are suffering because prices are rising, there
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are not enough jobs and the government keeps cutting government funding. People have to find
other ways to get what they need to survive.
In the book it also showed that people with more money got to live better and had a better
chance of survival. Its clear that those who have less wealth will have fewer years to live than
those with more wealth. Found education to be one of the biggest determanents of longevity
according to George, the professor of psychiatry at Harvard medical school. A lot of people that
live in poverty arent able to succeed in school because they are worried about how they are
going to take care of their families and finding jobs to pay the bills at a young age. The people
who had money are able to pay for the food and things they needed for survival so the high
prices did not affect them. In the real world things are the same for people that make a lot of
money. They get to live better lives because they have the money to pay for the more expensive
and higher quality things such as organic food which is healthier than the food that most people
can afford. They can also afford high quality weapons, security guards and afford to live in
better areas so they dont have to worry about people invading their home and stealing from
them. People with more can money live healthier lives than people that are living in poverty that
can only afford things of lower quality and are more unhealthy because thats all they can afford.
People living in poverty cant afford health care and to visit doctors to make sure their health is
good and they are in good conditions. In comparison the book is criticizing how social class
results in better treatment and better living conditions.
In the book there are also more people with no money then there are people that
are rich. It compares to real life because it shows a cultural difference between people with
money and people that are living in poverty. According to the article Reconsidering Culture and
Poverty poor people may be reluctant to participate in beneficial community activities in part
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because of how they culturally perceive their neighborhoods. (Scholar Harvard). The
government heavily controlled by people that are rich and are powerful because of their social
status because they are rich. They control a lot of whats going on in the world, not the people of
the nation. There are still so many people living in poverty because the people who are living
good are not trying to fix it because they are comfortable with the things are going on because
they are not the ones who are suffering. Rich people are benefitting from the way the
government is using the funds and the way the government is working because they gain from
whats going on. They get funding for what they want and I turn the programs for people who
actually need more funding. The rich are staying rich and even getting richer while people in
poverty are forced to stay there because of the way things are going. In the book the people that
are living in poverty are in gangs, scavengers and they are leading a life of crime. In places all
over the world people are going through the same thing. The people with no money are acting
this way because of what they see around them and the fact that they dont have enough money
to survive and a lot of the people with money are being selfish and not helping the people that
dont even have enough to survive. Towards the ending of the book many people are running
from the bomb but the rich people are okay because they are flying in their private jets to safety.
There is a huge gap in the society between the rich and the poor. Since so many people are poor
the country is turning into a third world country. In countries where there isnt such a huge gap
between the social class everyone is equal and no one is above or better than anyone else.
In The Postmortal, Poverty resulted in violence, crime, and ultimately death. In the
postmortal it says Were going to take what we need to survive (238). People were doing
things that they never thought they would do because they had to. In an article Ward said either
take part in criminal activity or try to find legal but quite limited sources of income-when there
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are any available at all. People that had more power were able to have what they need to survive
because they could just take food, water, and whatever they need to survive. Crime was higher
than ever towards the ending of the book. According to Miles crime is worse than ever (237).
People resulted to gangs, violence, and theft because they didnt have what they needed to live.
Crime and poverty also go hand and hand in the real world as well. People are so used to living
without that theyre tired of it and would rather be at risk for going to jail than to not be able to
make it because they dont have enough money. People will do anything they can to survive.
According to the poverty website around 21,000 people are dying every day because of
starvation. People are starving because the lack of jobs and they cant find other ways to provide
for themselves. The government should do more to prevent this from happening and at least
lower the numbers of people dying and suffering by cutting funds for the defense and start
funding more programs for government assistance, shelters and feeding people who cant afford
food. There is enough food for people to survive, people living in poverty just dont have access
to it. I think it is selfish that we as a country have more than enough food for everybody, yet
there are tons of people starving because they dont have enough money to pay for food. They
should create jobs for people who dont have college degrees because now they are making it
harder for people to get a job when people didnt have to have college degrees to get the jobs that
they are requiring degrees for now. Now it is steep competition for people in the job market to
get jobs which is resulting in more poverty for more people. They should also create more
programs for people in poverty to be able to go to school to get a job and get out of poverty.
Some people may argue that poverty is a choice and that people can get out of poverty and do
well if they want to but people cant change the situation on their own with no help. If you are
living in poverty and have no money, you cant afford new clothes or to look decent for an
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interview. People living in severe poverty cant just get up and get a job when they can barely
get enough money for food and shelter. It isnt easy for people who already dont have anything
to just get up and do something. A lot of people are born into poverty, in wasnt something they
chose. People are forced into poverty because generations of their family have been in poverty
and its hard for them to get out. People that havent been through it dont know what its like
and think its easy to just go out and get money. Many people understand the feeling of living in
poverty and struggle because majority of people have dealt with it. Poorer countries have it
worse then America because most of the country is so poor that they cant even get clean water.
The book shows how poverty is an issue that is going on in the real world and is effecting almost
everyone because most people are going through it and seeing other people have to suffer is sad
to see. According to Global Issues More than 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
That is not even enough money to survive on and feed a family full of people. The book is an eye
opener and is allowing to see what is going on in the world. It shows how poverty is one of the
main reason for crime. People were committing crimes and the crime rate rapidly increased
because a lot of people had to resort to crime in order to survive. Even the people who didnt
have to use crime to get money had to be violent in order to protect themselves from being hurt
by people who were trying to rob them.
In conclusion there are many of things that can be done in order to improve the poverty
level in the United States. It might not be able to be completely resolved but the situation can be
improved. Drew Magory was trying to get his readers to see the issue and watch how it played
out in his story. This is a wakeup call to people to let them know that the things that happened in
the book after the cure can actually happen if people dont try and fix the situation. It is
something that is going to take time and wont change unless people see that it needs to be
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changed and something needs to be done. The gap between the rich and the poor in America is
only getting better and while they are living their lavish lives, people are suffering and cant even
afford to get clean water. People need to reevaluate the value of life like it shows in the book.
Life is becoming of less value and more meaningless. The book is great because it reflects are
social issues and the problems with our society and how if they progress they can lead to the
destruction and downfall of our society.




Works cited
Chantrill Christopher. Federal Budget. US government spending. 2013. Web. 23. Mar. 2014.
Gas prices rise again as Syria worries boosts oil. Nbc news. 09. Sep. 2013. Web. 10. March.
2013.
Harding, D. Lamont, M. Small, M. Reconsidering Culture and Poverty. Scholar Harvard. May.
2010. Web. 10. March. 2014.
Hellman Chris, Kramer Mattea. How Much Does Washington Spend on Defense? The
Nation. 22. May. 2012. Web. 10. March. 2014.
Magory, Drew, The Postmortal. New York: Penguin Group Ltd, 2011. Print
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Maher, Jeff. Milk prices could go up 60 cents in March. Abc News 10. 19. Feb. 2014. Web. 24.
Mar. 2014
Palmer, Kimberly. Do rich people live longer. US news. 14. Feb. 2014. Web. 24. Msr. 2014
Shah, Anup. Poverty Facts and Stats. Global Issues. 07. January. 2014. Web. 11. March. 2014.
Hunger and World Poverty. Poverty.com. Web. 10. March. 2014
Ranis, G. The gap between rich and poor nations. Cab direct. Web. 24. Mar. 2014.
Ward, Maurice. Poverty and Crime. National Dialogue Network. 13. Oct. 2013. Web. 11. Mar.
2014.