Poverty and Child Abuse in New Mexico Revisited (Post Here)

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Permalink Reply by Tara on July 24, 2008 at 11:27am

Poverty not only in our state but in our country is a big problem. There are several factors that contribute to poverty, lack of education, good jobs, and low wages this list could go on and on. The saddest part for me about poverty is unfortunately there are so many children living in poverty that are helpless to their situation. In our state I can’t really say for sure that its getting worse but any signs our statistics on it getter better are not significant enough to make a major change in the poverty rate in our state I feel. Ending poverty or decreasing the amount of people living at or below the poverty line in NM would be a major process it’s not something that could be done over night obviously. I think a good start at fixing the problem would be raising our states minimum wage. Most of the families and children living in poverty are living on a minimum wage income. If the wages of these households were raised I think it would definitely help them provide a better standard of living for their children. I think if there were better programs out there encouraging people to get a better education or job training we would have less people relying on government assistance. I believe in government assistance as a temporary solution but I feel people get comfortable on it. Families on government assistance don’t receive much financially monthly and will receive even less if they make more money at their job. I think that keeps more people staying at lower paying jobs for security purposes. I think if the people behind the desks at the offices where you can apply for government assistance could encourage education and better job training more that would be great help as well. I also think that if the money our state brings in could be distributed more to higher wages that would help decrease poverty in our state.

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Permalink Reply by cmpacheco on July 24, 2008 at 11:50am

New Mexico is a state with too many people living in poverty. There are not enough jobs that offer decent wages for New Mexicans to rise above the poverty level. In Albuquerque, it would take a family of four (two wage earners and two children) about $41,000 to just barely make ends meet. That averages out to about $10.00 an hour for each adult. The sad thing is that minimum wage, while recently raised, will still only be $7.50 an hour in Albuquerque. In New Mexico, the minimum wage rate is higher than the federal minimum wage; which is $6.50 and $5.15 respectively. I am sure that there are many people that believe that New Mexicans are not as poor as they are. For those people, I would have to explain what I have just discussed; how much it costs to live in Albuquerque and the wages necessary versus the amount that is many people are making, minimum wage. There does seem to be a consensus on the idea that poverty is a problem, and that it is a growing problem. There are some ideas that could help to minimize the poverty rate in New Mexico. These ideas include things like raising the minimum wage rate even more than the recent raise, and make smarter and more investments toward education (including pre-k programs, teacher’s and educational assistant’s wages). I agree with these solutions to poverty and think that raising the minimum wage would be just a start. New Mexico, as a state, needs to offer more job training opportunities to those who suffer from poverty. According to our text, the majority of those who are living in poverty are willing to work, and probably are working for minimal wages. Given that information, I am sure that if offered comprehensible job training opportunities, they would take advantage of those opportunities to better their lives.

Cristina Pacheco

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Cohen on July 25, 2008 at 3:37pm

Poverty is one of the most prevalent and also the most significant problem in New Mexico these days. It is affecting the people, the economy, the lifestyle and just about every aspect of our state. There are too many poor families that do not have the job skills or the resources to provide for themselves. The homeless on the streets have too few resources and the working poor in rural cities are turning to drugs and alcohol as a way to solve their problems. With alcohol, drugs and poverty comes domestic and child abuse. We are seeing increasing poverty rates with skyrocketing child abuse cases. As the problems themselves get worse, the resources available to help combat these issues become overworked, understaffed and under funded. There is a widening gap that includes increasing abuse and poverty with decreasing amounts of resources and support programs. If we don't do something about this soon, our children are going to have no choice but to live in abusive homes because there are no available centers to come remove the child from a dangerous environment. Poverty will increase and so will illicit drug use and intoxicated driving accidents. It is so much easier to combat these problems before they start rather than trying to fix what has been done. Let's bite the bullet and put less money into arms and slightly increase taxes to provide less expensive higher education, free pre-natal care programs, better job skill training, and homeless shelters that provide job training skills and educational courses. We can bring our state to the top! We have the beauty and the brains; we just need a little push to get us to continue in the right direction!

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Permalink Reply by babyisaiashmom on July 26, 2008 at 8:47pm

Poverty in New Mexico is a growing issue and something needs to be done about it. There are many people who work or those who do not work and they are in poverty unable to make ends meet for both themselves and their children. I think that we as a state our government needs to provide education such as job training and job placement to those who are in poverty. Not only to them but we need to start training our children how to better themselves for their future.I think if the minimum wage was raised here in New Mexico then people would at least be a littlle more able to survive. We need to re-evaluate what it takes to get WIC, day care assistance and food stamps etc. There are people who work and are told that they make to much to qualify even though they are struggling to survive. our government needs to focus on this issue and do something about it.

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Permalink Reply by Sara Pennington on July 27, 2008 at 4:58pm

From the research that I have done, I found poverty and child abuse in New Mexico to be more prevalent than I originally realized. I learned that its not necessarily a poverty issue so much as a growing income gap that is causing people to fall below the poverty line. While the affluents' income goes up, the poor's income goes down. If this problem continues to grow, which previous patterns suggest it will, than it is a big deal. It is essentially eliminating the middle class. I think it is only going to get worse, despite the efforts to help, such as offering more grants and financial aide to students, and low income health coverage. I think the answer to solving the problem lies in education. There are not many people who hold a degree and don't have a respectable income. The standards of competition in the job market are rising and the population must rise to meet those standards and make money in the job market. I think any education is a step in the right direction, whether it be teaching our children in pre- grade school classes or getting job training or getting a full fledged degree. Education is the answer.

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Permalink Reply by bekind on July 27, 2008 at 5:50pm

I think that if we as New Mexicans are not willing to change our whole view on poverty and it causes we will never improve our state and the lives of our citizens. Poverty has too many intricate details to name, but the one common thread I believe is education, people who are not educated do not have any chance of finding their way out of poverty and this will surely be passed down to their children. Another is a stable job market with more than just medial jobs available. That’s were I believe the government has a responsibility to its citizens. there is so much out sourcing and subsidizing going on that its absolutely ridiculous and we are all paying for it when they say the Feds are paying for it its not the companies or the government it’s us but we have no say on how it spent. I think it is very sad that 1 in 6 people here do not have resources to buy food, that more families here go hungry during the summer because they don’t’ eat breakfast and lunch at school. I also believe that if we are not in this situation it is hard for us as individuals to have any idea what it really means to be poor. I also believe that people do take pride in self-reliance in what they do and can achieve great things not only for themselves but for their families if given the chance.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Watson on July 27, 2008 at 6:59pm

I have concluded that poverty and child abuse in New Mexico is a big problem. The issue is not improving at all as far as I can see. There needs to be a few big changes to occur before we see any change in poverty in this state. First, a raise in minimum wage to give parents a decent chance at providing enough for their children. There needs to be a higher number of higher salaried jobs in this state as well. There needs to be a better health care structure for children at all income levels. There are programs set up to assist in these areas, but I feel it needs to be issued from the state level to make an impact.

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Permalink Reply by Christine Valdez on July 27, 2008 at 7:02pm

After an review of serveral internet articles and websites, I have concluded that poverty in New Mexico is still much a social problem. Although we have made some strides with family tax credits and an increase in minimum wage to $7.15 we still have many issues to address. Issues such as early childhood eduction prior to kindergarden, better pre-natal care, healthcare for all families, addressing our failing education system and providing opportunities for those who can not afford college other alternatives, as well as job training opportunties for those who are reintergrating into society or are uneducated and underprivileged. Although some sources vary in opinion, it is clear that New Mexico is poor and there is a squeezing of the middle class. Research shows we are below the national average of a 2 parent 2 children family, and the cost of everday living is over what our median wages are for this type of family. This is clearly and example of why so many Americans are in debt. If middle class is struggling to survive, how can those in proverty survive? This leads to the increase of crime and high school drop-outs and more. Our educational system and healthcare system is failing. Government is reducing medical care for children by a process called the "Autoclosure system", wherein computers remove children after six (6) months from the Medicaid system, leaving them without healthcare. Unless a social worker is assigned ober 120,000 New Mexican families have been affected by this system. Yet our government has yet to respond and has stopped traning the number of cases closed by this newly developed system. This is a great way to hide what the government doesn't want the public to see. I was stunned when I asked my attorney this week how he would modify the budget. His response was he would cut social services. He also stated that if he could come from being poor with a disablity then those in poverty can do the same. I stopped and thought to myself, but didn't you have a father in the the Senate? Hmm....so how does that compare to the everday individual who lives in the streets. Sadly to say, our community of wealth feels the same way. How do we change this ongoing cycle, it begins by one person raising the issue to our government and having others rally along and demand change. Without change the youth in our society will suffer and will continue to have low rankings, more crime, less educated individuals, healthcare problems and the down wirlwind spiral continues. I don't have all the answers to solving this ongoing problem of poverty, but what I do know is that we as citizens can petition for change and offer to assist those in need.

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Permalink Reply by Page Lynn Potter on July 27, 2008 at 8:49pm

1) From your readings do you think that poverty is a significant problem in New Mexico? If so, why? If you came across someone who didn’t think it was a problem, what would you tell them?
"The fact that over one-third of our state's population is working - even, in many cases, working more than full-time - and still living in poverty should be seen as an economic crisis. Work is no longer a path to prosperity and a better future for our children for far too many of our working families", said Gerry Bradley, Research Director for New Mexico Voices for Children. "New Mexico's economy needs to perform better. We need a high-performance economy that produces higher-wage jobs that give families a real chance at prosperity", he continued. "Instead, we have an economy that is producing too many low-wage jobs".
AFT New Mexico http://nm.aft.org/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=66613541-15ff-4121-a69c-a3261c0a2c94
This is just enough alone to prove a point. I don't think I have met anyone who disagrees and if I do I must say that they have had to be living in a "sheltered life". If you go downtown you usually see homeless people correct? Now imaging the homeless population growing so significantly that the homeless began to travel to the west side. This observation is enough and not to mention the amount of financial assistance being offered to keep people from becoming homeless is at record highs.


2) How much agreement among your sources is there about the prevalence of this problem?
A extreme amount of agreement.

3) Did you find any evidence that this problem is growing or lessening? (Are there differences among the sources you found and how big are they?)
So far the overall household income for New Mexicans has increased since last year but the number of New Mexicans that are uninsured still skyrockets, as well as the poverty rate. The poverty rate unfortunately has stayed the same and we still are one of the worst states in the nation.

4) Do the readings you have done seem to suggest ways to lessen poverty, especially among children, in New Mexico?
Yes, there are numerous ways to get free insurance as well as financial assistance to family's who qualify, and food stamps.

5) Which of the following solutions to poverty, especially among children in New Mexico would you support?

a. better pre-natal care opportunities
b. more opportunities for learning for children prior to grade school
c. send people who are living below the poverty line out of the state or country
d. create work camps where the impoverished are sent to learn how to earn their keep
e. raise the minimum wage so that the poor don't rely on government programs for assistance
f. more job training opportunities

I would have to more job training opportunities, because as I like to say "knowledge is power". The better chances poverty stricken families have at earning more money mean less needs for government funds. I also feel if we can properly educate people the better off they will be.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Gonzales on July 27, 2008 at 9:09pm

Poverty is a very big problem in the state of New Mexico. These problems such as homelessness, poor living conditions, low wages, insufficient health care, and lower education standards all contribute to our high poverty levels in New Mexico. Some people who are New Mexico residents may not think of poverty to be such a big problem due to the fact that they do not know any different. Some of these individuals have never left the state, and seen other cities and states that have much lower poverty rates. Many of the sources I used when researching poverty in New Mexico all state that this is a problem that is growing, and not getting any better.

One idea to better our poverty situation in New Mexico is to raise the minimum wage level. There is a very large amount of families who's wage earners work for wages either at the current low minimum wage or below. Therefore the children of these low wage earners are the ones who are pronounced as living in poverty, with not many opportunities such as higher education, healthcare, and better living conditions. More job training opportunities would also assist people who are stuck at low wage jobs. This would also improve their overall education and quality of life.

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Permalink Reply by michael p jaramillo on July 27, 2008 at 9:53pm

Poverty is certainly an issue here in America, but especially in New Mexico. The state is seeing an increase in the request for help both from individuals and families. Families are suffering financial turmoil which is leading to foreclosures and evictions. Many families being forced to live out of their cars or if they are fortunate enough, at a homeless shelter. This state has a high percentage of illegal immigrants that are unable to obtain legal employment that will provide for them and give their families health insurance, then they are ineligible for social services. All the while, the children being deprived of basic needs that is essential for their development. No one can deny the dire straits of this state especially with the economy struggling the way it is. It is a sad day in America when you watch the news and a mother tells you she is forced to choose between buying food for her family and putting gas in her car. This state is plagued with a high teen pregnancy rate and a very high drop out rate. While those statistics may not seem important right now, they will have a major impact on the individual’s ability to obtain employment, provide for their families and became productive, working members of their communities.

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Permalink Reply by Andria on July 27, 2008 at 10:50pm

Poverty and Child abuse in New Mexico remains to be a problem. The various resources that I have viewed do not seem to suggest that things are getting better. One idea about how to fix poverty would be, as some of my colleges have already suggested; is to raise the minimum wage to a salary that would allow a full time worker meet current living standards. This would also decrease the pressures within the home so that parents don’t have to 'take it out on the children.' We also need to find a better way to bring up test scores within our schools. We are putting monies into our schools; however it does not seem to be helping. I know from a personal perspective, that teachers are overwhelmed by over populated schools, especially in Albuquerque, teachers are being taken for granted and are expected to keep control of a class that has the double of amount of students without any incentive.

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