A wealth of knowledge: looking at the intersectionality of education and generational poverty

Abstract

America has long been hailed as the land of opportunity. However, in recent years we have experienced unprecedented levels of income inequality and a widespread increase in the working poor. Despite the United States’ long held belief of the self-made, thriving family, today’s world paints a much different picture. I put together ideas and statistics from books such as Corporations are not People, The Big Squeeze, and The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, scholarly articles, and information I learned firsthand from my recent work with Beneficence Family Scholars, a nonprofit operating in Muncie, Indiana. Throughout the paper I lay out the case for why we have a systemic problem with how we treat the poor in the United States and how making education more accessible allows individuals and communities to escape the shackles of generational poverty.