The number of people living below the poverty line increased step by step with the input of capitalism. Most people were ignorant to the fact that they were being mistreated and they were not able to avoid from living with poverty. .
Today the threat of poverty is still expanding very fast through America. Not only is the number of poor Americans extremely high, but the severity is also. Many people have no idea of the extent of how people in poverty live. Many think someone is poor when his or her income is "substantially" less than the average income, but there are many other reasons to why people are poor: high-unemployment, poor physical health, drug addiction, racial discrimination and many other things. .
Valdas Anelauskas says that there are two theories that Americans have came up with to be the reason why people are poor, but neither theory has been proven to be correct. The first theory is "blame the poor". This theory says that people who are poor did not make the right decisions regarding their life, and lets opportunities slip pass them. If these " so called" opportunities were available to the poor the likelihood of the poor passing them up is very low. Most poor people if given the chance will try very hard to get or maintain a job, but by the setup of the economy it is likely that the poor will remain poor. The second theory is that "society creates and maintains poverty because benefits are created". Most people who are very fortunate have jobs that pay well and give them a very successful life, while the poor take the underpaying and unpleasant jobs. By taking these jobs, the poor make the higher-class individuals aspire for the more challenging positions. This theory sounds good but in all actuality it is not true either. It is not fair that people who already have jobs to get better ones, while those who have no jobs stay at the bottom with no hope for themselves.