1. Explain what the four factors of poverty are and how they impact one’s life.

1. Education – People won’t be able to get a good education if they don’t live in the best or nicest area so then they won’t be able to get a good job and with a not so good job the won’t be able to afford to pay for a place to live or bills and they also won’t be able to buy very healthy food if they have a bad low paying job.
2. Geographic placement – If they live in a bad place then they might not be able to get a good job and with a not so good job the won’t be able to afford to pay bills.
3. Family  – If you have a big family then your parents or yourself won’t really be able to pay for much so you’ll be really just eating unhealthy food and you’ll probably be living in a bad area because your parents have too many kids to take care of unless your parents have a good job but since we’re talking about poverty they would so you’d be living in a bad place with so many siblings and your parents are working a low-paying job and you don’t get healthy food when we get junk food so then you can get diabetes and get overweight and then you get sick and then your parents probably won’t be able to pay for a doctor’s appointment to cure you so then you might die.
4. Health – your parents are working a low-paying job and you don’t get healthy food when we get junk food so then you can get diabetes and get overweight and then you get sick and then your parents probably won’t be able to pay for a doctor’s appointment to cure you so then you might die or you could have been born with a disease but your parents still won’t have enough money from their jobs to be able to pay for the medication or they really even be seen by a doctor just because they don’t have enough money for it.

   2. Explain how the cycle of poverty works.Okay so the poverty cycle is that your parents probably have debt and they live in that area and they work at low paying jobs and then they have you so then you’re born and then you get born into a poverty family and then you grew up with not much healthy food and then when you grow up you will have probably have diabetes and you won’t be able to do many good jobs because you’re overweight or have diabetes cuz then you can’t like run around for your jobs and stuff And then you’ll probably not be able to afford the medication for diabetes and then you could either die from that or if you are okay with other medications you just get older with diabetes and then eventually you’ll just either have children and then they’ll be born into a poverty family bloodline and then you’ll die in poverty eventually.

   3. How do we help people get healthy food cheaply? 
   We can have a food program that helps people that live in poverty get cheaper produce and healthy foods. But to get into the program you would have to get a background check to see if you get paid enough to be able to buy good and healthy foods and you would be shipped a card from the government to show at grocery stores so you get a better deal on healthy foods but the actual person going shopping would have to pay but they won’t have to pay as much because of the discount card. But this card will go to people who live in poverty but can still afford some produce and healthy food vs. food stamps should just be for people who can’t afford that type of food at all.

   4. What government policy suggestions do you have? 

   I don’t really have any government policy suggestions.

5.  What changes can you/we make to help?I feel like Some changes that we can make to help people in poverty are  making that Food program I was talking about in the previous question because I feel like that would just really help a bunch of people and I feel like it wouldn’t be worth it to help people like that because I feel like food stamps help a lot of people but I don’t think they help enough people but it also teaches people that they can just rely on other people to do their grocery buying and things like that for them with the food program I was talking about they would have to pay for their food but they would give a discount when they show their card at the cash register so like because strawberries for an example or $5.50 without the card let’s stay with the card it would be $3.25 Instead just because then they’re taking responsibility and they’re paying for their food but the government is still helping.

1. What factors can lead to poverty?

Some factors that relate to health care are being addicted to substances, No medicare, Mental Illness. If you can’t afford basic first aid.  Some factors that relate to education through poverty are expensive school fees, no money for school supplies, and the lunches and snacks you have to buy your kid. Some factors that relate to family structure and poverty are if you have a huge family, or if you need medications for a sick child or an ongoing sickness.

2. What circumstances can fuel long-term poverty?

Some circumstances that can fuel long-term poverty are things like addictions,  if you don’t have a job bringing in money, If you don’t have working parents, or if you have a huge family. A huge family can sometimes mean poverty because the more people in your family the more expensive the bills are for everything and that means you are left with less money which means poverty. It also depends on where you live and where you decide to go to college and what to study because whatever you study in college is on your resume and your workplace will look at that before hiring you to work there. Also if you grew up with not having working parents then you are going to be born into poverty and then it is up to you to turn your life around and end your circle of poverty.

• As someone in this experience, tell your story.  Describe your experience. Tell us about the highs and the lows.  What were your major takeaways? What did you learn? How did you like it?  Be sure to explain your answers.    At the beginning of the game, we picked our jobs by a random number system. Then we got our jobs and started working and very quickly we got our first paycheck  So my job was that I had to write people’s bathroom passes and give them permission to go get water. My Job was very easy but it was actually very boring because a lot of the time no one had to go to the bathroom. Some of my Highs are when I got a second job but then my “boss” fake proposed to me and I said yes. Some of the lows are that I was evicted and I got fired from my second job because you can’t be married to your employer for some reason and I was really annoyed about that. Some of the major takeaways are that now I can write a real-life check and now I know how it feels to have a job, be on a tight budget, and only get a little money. I really liked the whole activity and the Idea of it and I like that now I know how to write a check.

• How did your character’s role/situation in the game affect your ability to take care of yourself?  Think about your income, job, rent, the amount of money you had, any loans you took out, and your health situation. My character’s role in the game was not very important in the whole economy. I was really just a bathroom Bodyguard.  My Character was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the last week and a half of the economy and I had to pay $180 per week of economy money for my meds so I didn’t die. For my Job, I got paid $220 of economy money per week for doing my job but I had to pay $75 for rent per week, $20 for utilities per week, and I had to pay off $10 dollars of debt per week. With all that money spending per week, I was left with $115 per week.

• What aspects of your character’s life encouraged success?  What aspects of your character’s life brought about failure?  Explain how that process worked. The only time my character’s life encouraged success was when I was hired for a second job and then my boss proposed to me. The aspects of my character’s life that brought failure was when I was evicted when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and when I had to go to jail for two days.

• What attempts did you make to improve your character’s life?  How successful were these attempts? How difficult were those attempts and why?  The only attempt I tried was when I applied for the second job and then I got the job but then my boss proposed to me and I said yes. After I said yes I had to quit because you can’t be married to your employer.

• In bullet points, write a list of what you learned about poverty from this activity. Be sure to include a brief description next to each item about what you learned, explaining your learning/thinking.
• How to write a check properly- Learned what to write in each section of a real-life check.
• That paying rent is hard- Sometimes you don’t have enough money to pay rent and you can get evicted.
•  medications are expensive- Medications are very expensive and it takes up a lot of money but you need them to stay healthy.

1. How did you feel when you realized there was such an unequal pay amount between workers and bosses?
I felt that it was fair because the Bosses have to hire people and they have to pay them every week or month but 361 times more money between a Boss and workers is a lot.

2. Why does unequal pay between workers and bosses happen?                                                                                                                                        The unequal pay is because the bosses have to hire workers and pay workers every week.

3. What is a realistic solution to prevent such unequal pay from happening in the future?                                                                                         To prevent this unequal pay you can either Be a CEO or you can work in your own business.

4. What is one topic that has interested you thus far and why is it interesting to you?                                                                                          The things that have interested me the most are evictions, unequal pay, taxes, and how to pay rent.

This is a Menorah and it is from the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. On this holiday Jewish families everywhere get together to celebrate. On this holiday we traditionally eat potato latkas. The holiday is eight days and eight nights long. Families usually give each other gifts every night.

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