Safety Net free essay sample

Students can have fair chances and hope for their futures, thanks to the government. There are problems that come along with the safety net but that doesn’t imply that everyone using it, uses it wrongfully. There are people out there in need of this and without it would be dead right now. We cannot punish the innocent for the wrong doers actions. According to an article, dozens of benefits programs provided an average of $6,538 for each man, woman, and child in the county in 2009, a 69 percent increase from 2000 after adjusting to the inflation. The government safety net was created to keep Americans from extreme poverty, but the sad part is that the poorest households no longer are receiving the majority of the government benefits. Almost everyone present relies on the government to pay for their medical care. For example Mr. Kopka, 74, has had three heart procedures in recent years. His wife recently had surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes. We will write a custom essay sample on Safety Net or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Without Medicare, Mr. Kopka said, they could not have paid for the treatments, meaning his wife would be blind and he would be dead. Although there are many cases such as this one, a few federal programs are more popular than Medicare. Medicare’s financial problems are much worse than Social Security’s. People need these programs and they need the government and do not use it as a joke. One woman even said â€Å"Without it, I’m not sure how I would live, with the check I’m getting from Social Security, it’s a constant struggle on making sure that I pay my rent and have enough left for groceries. † â€Å"Man dies from toothache, couldn’t afford meds† is the name of this article that would make anyone’s jaw drop. It is outrageous that a man died and was not able to pay for his tooth medication. A 24 year-old father died from a tooth infection that spread and made his brain swell. This is reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care. Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medication. Sadly, he could not pay for both so had to choose one and pain medication was his choice. This caused the infection to spread and make his brain swell and die. According to this article this story is actually not unique. In 2007, 12 year-old Deamonte Driver also died when a tooth infection spread to his brain. The Maryland boy underwent two operations and six weeks of hospital care, totaling $250,000. Doctors said a routine $80 tooth extraction could’ve saved his life. His family was uninsured and had recently lost its Medicaid benefits, keeping the young boy from his life saving dental surgery. Stories like this make it more obvious that the government MUST continue to have these safety net programs. Getting access to dental care is particularly tough for low-income adults and children and it’s getting tougher as the economy worsens. This is the main concern of the people in disagreement with the social safety net programs. The debt is over whelming and hurting the deficit of the country and pulling us more and more into debt. Through the problems like debt that comes along with the social safety net programs, the help that it brings to the citizens in need is more than the debt it causes. The system needs to be sure of the people using the programs, free clinics are needed for the sick that are also poor, the unemployment benefits are needed, public education, Medicaid, Medicare, the government needs to have their citizens protected. Where would the people of this country be? Not to life off of the system or depend on it for life, but to work their way up in society and be independent. The government’s duty is to help their citizens but not to take advantage.

Marco Polo Essays - Marco Polo, Niccol And Maffeo Polo, Kublai Khan

Marco Polo Essays - Marco Polo, Niccol And Maffeo Polo, Kublai Khan Marco Polo Marco Polo is one of the most well-known heroic travelers and traders around the world. In my paper I will discuss with you Marco Polo?s life, his travels, and his visit to China to see the great Khan. Marco Polo was born in c.1254 in Venice. He was a Venetian explorer and merchant whose account of his travels in Asia was the primary source for the European image of the Far East until the late 19th century. Marco's father, Niccol?, and his uncle Maffeo had traveled to China (1260-69) as merchants. When they left (1271) Venice to return to China, they were accompanied by 17-year-old Marco and two priests. Early Life Despite his enduring fame, very little was known about the personal life of Marco Polo. It is known that he was born into a leading Venetian family of merchants. He also lived during a propitious time in world history, when the height of Venice?s influence as a city-state coincided with the greatest extent of Mongol conquest of Asia(Li Man Kin 9). Ruled by Kublai Khan, the Mongol Empire stretched all the way from China to Russia and the Levant. The Mongol hordes also threatened other parts of Europe, particularly Poland and Hungary, inspiring fear everywhere by their bloodthirsty advances. Yet the ruthless methods brought a measure of stability to the lands they controlled, opening up trade routes such as the famous Silk Road. Eventually ,the Mongols discovered that it was more profitable to collect tribute from people than to kill them outright, and this policy too stimulated trade(Hull 23). Into this favorable atmosphere a number of European traders ventured, including the family of Marco Polo. The Polos had long-established ties in the Levant and around the Black Sea: for example, they owned property in Constantinople, and Marco?s uncle, for whom he was named, had a home in Sudak in the Crimea(Rugoff 8). From Sudak, around 1260, another uncle, Maffeo, and Marco?s father, Niccol?, made a trading visit into Mongol territory, the land of the Golden Horde(Russia), ruled by Berke Khan. While they were there, a war broke out between Berke and the Cowan of Levant , blocking their return home. Thus Niccol? and Maffeo traveled deeper into mongol territory, moving southeast to Bukhara, which was ruled by a third Cowan. While waiting there, they met an emissary traveling farther eastward who invited them to accompany him to the court of the great Cowan, Kublai, in Cathay(modern China). In Cathay, Kublai Khan gave the Polos a friendly reception, appointed them his emissaries to the pope, and ensured their safe travel back to Europe(Steffof 10). They were to return to Cathay with one hundred learned men who could instruct the Mongols in the Christian religion and the liberal arts. In 1269, Niccol? and Maffeo Polo arrived back in Venice, where Niccol? found out his wife had died while he was gone(Rugoff 5). Their son, Marco, who was only about fifteen years old, had been only six or younger when his father left home:thus; Marco was reared primarily by his mother and the extended Polo family-and the streets of Venice. After his mother?s death, Marco had probably begun to think of himself as something of a orphan(Rugoff 6). Then his father and uncle suddenly reappeared, as if from the dead, after nine years of traveling in far-off, romantic lands. These experiences were the formative influences on young Marco, and one can see their effects mirrored in his character: a combination of sensitivity and toughness, independence and loyalty, motivated by an eagerness for adventure, a love of stories, and a desire to please or impress(Li Man Kin 10). Life?s Work In 1268, Pope Clement IV died, and a two- or three-year delay while another pope was being elected gave young Marco time to mature and to absorb the tales of his father and uncle. Marco was seventeen years old when he, his father and uncle finally set out for the court of Kublai Khan(Stefoff 13). They were accompanied not by one hundred wise men but by two Dominican friars, and the two good friars turned back at the first sign of adversity, another local war in the Levant. Aside from the pope?s messages, the only spiritual gift Europe was able to furnish the great Kublai Khan was oil from the lamp burning at Jesus Christ?s supposed tomb in Jerusalem. Yet, in a sense, young Marco, the only new person in the Polos? party, was himself a fitting representative of the spirit of European civilization on the eve of the Renaissance, and the lack of one hundred learned Europeans