EPI proposed budget for a 2parent 2children household in Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC MSA, SC:
Monthly housing $654
Monthly food $643
Monthly childcare $859
Monthly transportation $482
Monthly healthcare $414
Monthly other necessities $312
Monthly taxes $200
Monthly total $3,564
Annual total $42,766
2008 Government Poverty Guidelines for a 4-person family:
$21,200 (annual)
The rates for a four-person family have a difference of $21,569, which is almost half of what the EPI budget recommend. My family could not live at the government’s poverty line and defiantly would not be comfortable. Personally, I do not see how my family would even be able to live at the EPI budget for a two-parent two-child household, and without a doubt we would not be comfortable. Perhaps this is because we are used to living beyond that. My dad is 58 and my mom is 54, so granted they have been in the work force longer and they both have established careers. My dad makes well over half of the total income for our household, and my mom alone makes over the annual total of the EPI proposed budget for a 2 parent 2 children household. I think that perhaps if my family was used to making less money than we would be able to survive and be comfortable at the EPI budget, but defiantly not at the Federal Government’s budget of $21,200. I think that it would be incredibly scary to be a young couple with two young kids in today’s economic situation. Luckily since my parent’s are older and have been working for 30 something years, they would be okay, but I do not see how a young couple with small children could survive if one or both spouses was laid-off…especially since the job market is so bad.
After watching the video in class and seeing what the Government defines as the poverty line, I totally understand how so many people are constantly struggling to make ends meet. It does not seem that anyone would have a chance to “catch-up” in a sense and break free of this horrible cycle of poverty. When you think about it, it is actually rather astounding that any child raised in a family that is considered to live below the poverty line, grows up and breaks out of the working poor class. One would think that a child that is raised in the group that is below the federal poverty line would not have as many opportunities in life, especially educational opportunities, and therefore, would not be able to excel in life and become a member of the middle class. The movie we watched in class hit home the fact that poverty is a real crisis that many Americans are in. For some reason it seems that a lot of people do not realize that this is a rampant problem.
If I were advising the next President about poverty and calculating poverty rates, I would tell him several things. The first thing I would say is that there needs to be a new formula for calculating the poverty lines. The new formula should take into account things such as the increase in cost of gasoline, food, etc. I would also suggest that some form of subsidized childcare be made available to a broader portion of the population. My last suggestion to the future President would be creating a universal healthcare system. This would greatly lower the cost of medicine, doctor’s visits, hospital bills, and so on. This would decrease a families budget by a tremendous amount.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
South Carolina Divorce Laws
The South Carolina state divorce laws are in my opinion not very fair. I think that there are some aspects that make sense and some that are just ridiculous. For example, I do not understand why they make two people wait an entire year of being separated to then be able to get divorced. Getting a marriage license in South Carolina is so easy, and yet the state makes it near impossible to have a divorce done quickly. It is almost as if the state is trying to propagate heterosexual marriages by making it easy to marry and hard to divorce. I do not think it is fair to make people wait that long. Maybe if the state required a longer waiting period before the marriage license is granted, then they would not be in the position of having to grant divorces. Perhaps people would have a chance to think longer about the decision they are about to make.
I do think though that the laws about property distribution and spousal support are good. However, they could be a little better. I totally agree with the laws that state that the spouse has the right to keep non-martial property including things such as property acquired prior to marriage, acquired by gift or inheritance, acquired in exchange for non-marital property, acquired due to an increase in the value of any non-marital property, or property protected in a pre-marital contract (such as any thing in a prenuptial agreement). This way if a person say has inherited a large piece of land that is very valuable and then is getting a divorce, the land is not included in the martial property that is to be divided.
I also think that the spousal support laws are good too. It is only fair that in the case of a divorce the partner who did not work, or makes less money, would be supported by the husband if she has the children. For example, if a woman was a stay-at-home-mom and had been out of the work force for a substantial number of years in order to take care of the kids, home, etc and then her husband, who was the breadwinner, divorces her, it is only fair that she be supported. It is especially fair that she gets half of the marital assets even though she never technically had an income contributing to the household. Also, in the case of child support, I think that some how the courts should come up with a foolproof way to ensure that child support is being paid. Maybe the money should be taken directly from the paycheck and given to the person with custody. Somehow the laws on child support need to be stricter because there are so many times where no one cent of child support is ever paid.
Overall I think that the South Carolina divorce laws are outdated and not very good. They make it incredibly hard to get divorced and then do not do a lot to help out the children and spouse once the divorce is done as far as monetary support. The system seems to be faulty.
I do think though that the laws about property distribution and spousal support are good. However, they could be a little better. I totally agree with the laws that state that the spouse has the right to keep non-martial property including things such as property acquired prior to marriage, acquired by gift or inheritance, acquired in exchange for non-marital property, acquired due to an increase in the value of any non-marital property, or property protected in a pre-marital contract (such as any thing in a prenuptial agreement). This way if a person say has inherited a large piece of land that is very valuable and then is getting a divorce, the land is not included in the martial property that is to be divided.
I also think that the spousal support laws are good too. It is only fair that in the case of a divorce the partner who did not work, or makes less money, would be supported by the husband if she has the children. For example, if a woman was a stay-at-home-mom and had been out of the work force for a substantial number of years in order to take care of the kids, home, etc and then her husband, who was the breadwinner, divorces her, it is only fair that she be supported. It is especially fair that she gets half of the marital assets even though she never technically had an income contributing to the household. Also, in the case of child support, I think that some how the courts should come up with a foolproof way to ensure that child support is being paid. Maybe the money should be taken directly from the paycheck and given to the person with custody. Somehow the laws on child support need to be stricter because there are so many times where no one cent of child support is ever paid.
Overall I think that the South Carolina divorce laws are outdated and not very good. They make it incredibly hard to get divorced and then do not do a lot to help out the children and spouse once the divorce is done as far as monetary support. The system seems to be faulty.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Epidemic of Teen Pregnancies
The “epidemic of teen pregnancy” as many scholars have called it, has been occurring since the 1940s. In fact, statistics show that the current rate of teen pregnancy matches that of the 1920s rate of teen pregnancy. However, the reason why it is now being considered an “epidemic” is because the majority of these pregnancies are unplanned. Back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, the rates of teen pregnancy was high, but for the most part the girls were then marrying the father of the baby. In addition to this, a lot of times girls were choosing to become pregnant. In today’s world, teenage pregnancy is seen frequently and a lot of the times no one thinks twice about seeing a pregnant 17-year-old. Of course people may automatically feel sorry for them or think less of them, but it is not out of the ordinary. However, it seems that our society has made adjustments to kind of accept teen pregnancies. There are many social programs that have been created to help teens that both chose to keep the baby and teens that choose not to keep the baby. For example, in my high school there was a special course that pregnant teens had to take. It was kind of like a parenting course where you learned all about babies and how to care for them. Anyone in the school was allowed to take the course as an elective, but pregnant teens were required to. Also, schools have become willing to work with students more when they have to leave school to have the baby. The school many times will let the student be “home-bound” which means the teachers go to the students house to tutor them so they do not get behind in school.
Another prominent example of society becoming acclimatized to teen pregnancy is the issue of the young Hollywood celebrities that have become pregnant. Jamie Lynn Spears, who became pregnant at the age of 16, announced her decision to have the baby in December 2007. Jamie Lynn, who is the star of a hit Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, was praised by many for being responsible and deciding to keep the baby. Recently, 17-year-old Bristol Palin, who is the daughter of Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin, announced she was five months pregnant. This teen pregnancy has especially been receiving a lot of attention because many critics have claimed that Palin’s people have been trying to cover it up. However, this is especially a hot topic because Sarah Palin has in the past cut aid to teen mothers and pregnancies. Lily Allen, Brit pop star, announced her (unplanned) pregnancy in December 2007 and although she was 21 at the time, it received a lot of attention also. Lily Allen was approached by a London designer to create a maternity line soon after she announce her pregnancy, Allen reportedly turned down the offer because she said that her audience is majority young girls and she thought that creating a maternity line would not be appropriate or the right message to send to those young fans. Lily Allen sadly miscarried one month after announcing her pregnancy.
So the question arises are all these examples of teen mothers sending the wrong message to young girls? Also, what steps should be taken to prevent teen pregnancies? Should sex-ed be mandatory? Should various types of birth controls be given to teens? What do we a society do to help this issue? From a symbolic interactionist perspective one might say that since the essence of this perspective is meaning is in response, that a teenager sees all of these popular celebrities becoming pregnant and things working out for them, so if they were to become pregnant everything would be okay too. Also, you could argue that because our society has become accommodating to pregnant teens that they think that if they became pregnant it would not be a huge deal. All of these issues are debatable, but one thing is for sure: the issue of teen pregnancy has been around for at least 70 years but it continues to be an important social issue.
Sources: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/So-Th/Teen-Pregnancy.html
Another prominent example of society becoming acclimatized to teen pregnancy is the issue of the young Hollywood celebrities that have become pregnant. Jamie Lynn Spears, who became pregnant at the age of 16, announced her decision to have the baby in December 2007. Jamie Lynn, who is the star of a hit Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, was praised by many for being responsible and deciding to keep the baby. Recently, 17-year-old Bristol Palin, who is the daughter of Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin, announced she was five months pregnant. This teen pregnancy has especially been receiving a lot of attention because many critics have claimed that Palin’s people have been trying to cover it up. However, this is especially a hot topic because Sarah Palin has in the past cut aid to teen mothers and pregnancies. Lily Allen, Brit pop star, announced her (unplanned) pregnancy in December 2007 and although she was 21 at the time, it received a lot of attention also. Lily Allen was approached by a London designer to create a maternity line soon after she announce her pregnancy, Allen reportedly turned down the offer because she said that her audience is majority young girls and she thought that creating a maternity line would not be appropriate or the right message to send to those young fans. Lily Allen sadly miscarried one month after announcing her pregnancy.
So the question arises are all these examples of teen mothers sending the wrong message to young girls? Also, what steps should be taken to prevent teen pregnancies? Should sex-ed be mandatory? Should various types of birth controls be given to teens? What do we a society do to help this issue? From a symbolic interactionist perspective one might say that since the essence of this perspective is meaning is in response, that a teenager sees all of these popular celebrities becoming pregnant and things working out for them, so if they were to become pregnant everything would be okay too. Also, you could argue that because our society has become accommodating to pregnant teens that they think that if they became pregnant it would not be a huge deal. All of these issues are debatable, but one thing is for sure: the issue of teen pregnancy has been around for at least 70 years but it continues to be an important social issue.
Sources: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/So-Th/Teen-Pregnancy.html
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
WELCOME!
My name is Kate and this is my blog for my Contemporary Social Issues class. I am a Senior at the College of Charleston and a sociology major. I am planning on going straight to grad school and get a masters in teaching. I really want to go to the University of Virginia, but all of that is still up in the air. I love kids and have always wanted to teach...hopefully one day I will be teaching second grade!!!
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