Rao 1 Naveen Rao Mr.

Hackney English 101: Rhetoric 15 September 2013 Statement of Scope for the Annotated Bibliography When people picture poverty, it is highly unlikely that American citizens are the first thought to appear in ones head. But when compared to the rest of the world, America actually has an apparent impoverished inter-society. Many American families are finding themselves smothered with poverty traps, or generational poverty, and are turning to the government for immediate relief. However, the government refuses to realize the severity of this problem; but on the other hand, they have been trying to fund short-term welfare and incentive programs. Even though the American government is attempting to fight poverty with the use of incentive programs, American citizens are still continually falling below the poverty line; the government needs to implement better organized programs to combat this imminent problem. This essay will explore who is included in this impoverished society and what types of problems they face on a daily basis. These people, contrary to popular belief, may not all be at fault for being poor. I will also discuss what the American government, as well as its citizens, can do to alleviate the strain poverty from this unfortunate community. I will explore the welfare incentives the government is already implementing and why they are failing to lower the poverty rate, as well as the future outlook these incentives will bring. This selected bibliography includes sources that address why the government is failing to combat this issue and why Americans cannot get out of these poverty traps. Although I exclude documents that talk about ways to fix the issue of poverty, I do not include how the governments welfare plans are actually helping. The Klein and Spriggs sources includes facts and figures on Americas impoverished community and details the demographics of the poor while the Out of Sight, Out of Mind source talks about why Americans are stuck in these traps. Americas Finished Agenda, as well as the John Edwards source talks about what the government can do to reform their welfare programs to lower the poverty rate. Overall, these sources provide facts to back up the problem of poverty as well as opinions on how to fix this issue. Naveen, as usual you have a strong paper. I thesis is well defined and the 2nd paragraph does a nice job of laying out what the paper would discuss. Maybe spend some time talking about what is beyond the scope of your paper. Annotations are strong.

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Annotated Bibliography "America's unfinished agenda: The poor are still there, and need helping." The Economist 20 5 2000: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. According to the author, the only people who can fix the poverty rates in America are the national government. In addition, the author talks about how the government implemented plans such as incentives to combat poverty, but the incentives aren't working. Moreover, this author also highlights other ways to help the polished Americans recover. Edwards, John. "A Tax System that Embraces Fairness and Equality." Social Research (2006): 431. elibrary. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Edwards questions how to combat poverty by stating that Americans can use our tax code to encourage asset building to combat poverty. After detailing this main cause to fight poverty, Edwards adds more ways to help the poor. Although it's the government's job to help these citizens in need, the author states that citizens can also join in to help. Klein, Erza. "Poverty Is Back!" American Prospect 2 Feb. 2006: 45. elibrary. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. Erza provides statistics on how on the years with huge natural crisis (such as hurricane Katrina), there was a drastic increase on the poverty rate. Furthermore, the author talks about how past presidents had a hard time rebuilding these American families due to a lack of emergency support. As a result of this, Erza suggest that the Democratic Party adopts the asset building process to help soften the blow of a financial crisis. Out of sight, out of mind 2000. elibrary. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. This author talks about the real reason some Americans live in poverty. Low wages and failure to work are the obvious

Rao 3 reasons for poverty, but some Americans have illnesses that Medicare won't cover, allowing them to stay jobless. This article also talks about how poverty traps are the main component for generational poverty and how Americans can move away from these traps. Spriggs, William E. "Poverty in America: The Poor are Getting Poorer." The New Crisis 1 Jan. 2006: 14. elibrary. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. This magazine article discusses the increasing number of Americans that fall below the poverty line since 2005. The source highlights the ages, races, and genders of all the poor Americans. In addition, this source states that poverty is not the citizens fault, and goes on to explain how it is a result from economicwide forces and public policy.