The Impact of the Financial Crises in American Families

The financial crisis in 2011 has affected the American families in so many different ways from having to downside where they are currently living to having to relocate for a job and everything in between. The poverty level has hit an all time high here in the United States. With 2011 not being over it is hard to tell what the poverty level will be when 2012 makes its appearance, but in 2010 there were almost forty-six million people that were living below the poverty level, which is equal to fifteen point one percent of the population in the United States.

With the financial crisis that the United States is experiencing this means that families have two choices. They can either deal with the situation or they can apply for assistance from the government, but the question is, will they qualify for any assistance? The government considers that if you make over twenty-two thousand one hundred and thirteen dollars with four people in the house, you are at poverty level, but one dollar more and you are above poverty level.

Another way that the financial crisis is impacting the American families is that many of them do not have any type of health insurance. With the jobless rate around ten percent people are having to decide whether to eat, have a roof over their heads, water and heat, or have health insurance.

For a long time it has always seemed like for a family to survive both parents must work, but there were a few instances where the mother could be a stay-at-home mom, but that option is slowing decreasing as the working spouse is losing their job, they are having to take a cut in pay, work less hours, or lose their job and have to take one with less money. With both parents having to work they may now have to pay for child care services which cuts into the money being brought into the house.

If the family is feeling the financial crunch it can affect their teenager’s ability to go to school with help from the parents. They may have to rely on getting a grant, student loans that have to be repaid, getting a job and go to school or even forgo college altogether. For the ones that are graduating from college this financial crisis is making it harder for them to get a good paying job in their field of study.

The financial crisis is affecting families in their jobs, their lifestyle, where they live and the type of house they have, what food their put on the table because of rising food cost prices, and healthcare. It is not only affecting them directly, but also indirectly in many aspects. For example, on the cost of rising prices on food, this is the result of the people growing the food has to pay higher prices for the seeds, plants, plus they also depend on the weather and if it does not cooperate, the harvest may not be good so up goes the prices. Then, you have the ones bring the food to the stores and the high gas prices they have to pay.