Reading this Syracuse.com article (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/syracuse_has_nations_highest_poverty_concentrated_among_blacks_hispanics.html) until the end was heart wrenching for me. When we hear the words ‘living in poverty’, what do we usually think? I know that I think that those people are waiting in line to get into a home at night with no food, or barely anything to call their own. And then I saw a statistic at the end of this article stating, “As of 2013, Syracuse’s poverty rate had declined to 33.2 percent, the 23rd-highest in the nation. The rate meant that 48,000 people who live in Syracuse have incomes of less than $23,500 for a family of four.” It wasn’t until then that I fully realized that the majority of my family lived under these statics back in my home, which is on the same top 10 list as Syracuse for the highest black concentration of poverty, Louisville, Kentucky. Being able to personally connect dots amongst crime and health drastically evolves my outlook on what poverty truly means.
Questioning the links between health and poverty, I found an article on Inequality Watch (http://www.inequalitywatch.eu/spip.php?article146&lang=fr). In the ending of this article, I came upon a new thought by reading that there is a definite bidirectional relationship between health and income. Their findings were that not only a decrease in wage would increase the chances in the undermining of ones health, but also becoming sick may come with a reduction of wealth. I personally find the similarities in both of those statements so parallel that they basically mean the same thing: the less wealthy, the less healthy.
Here are two more links to texts I found online:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/study_growing_hunger_problem_s.html
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/one_out_of_every_two_children_in_syracuse_live_in_poverty_according_to_new_censu.html
1. The first text is very research driven, using charts and statistics as their driving point in the conversation about poverty levels in Syracuse, NY. This brings the reader down to a very serious level by using mostly statisics. There are barely no room for opinions, as this is all about fact and truth—and maybe a bit of guessing as to what the root problem can be for Syracuse, NY. The author must have no direct relation to the poverty in Syracuse being that there was barely any emotional points in the article and pure statistics found in research. There were only a few times that emotion was sparked in me, but that line was a quote by another researcher that most likely had no direct link to poverty either. The audience for this short piece must have been people in the Syracuse community, being its purpose was to inform them of the crisis happening all around them. The author wrote this to get tangible statistics on this rising problem in Syracuse, NY, being number one in the nation for the highest poverty levels amongst minorities.
2. The second text draws I research, but the article consists of conclusions driven by educated hypothesis on whether poverty is a cause of poor health, or the contrary. The ending thought is that it is somewhat both. The authors tone is very research driven, but in the most uninteresting way possible. It was lacking personal taste and was not an easy read to get through, but was semi-successful in stating his argument. The audience was other scholars and average readers that surf the internet interested in topics like public health, and the purpose was to make the readers aware of the connections between health and poverty/wealth. The driving force to create the text must have been the curiosity within the author to try to find the information needed for the questions raised at the beginning of the passage.