The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty by Easton Clark on Prezi. Transcript of The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty. The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty. By Easton Clark. Herbert J. Gans: Context. Herbert J. Gans is a professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He has written numerous articles and books on the subject of poverty including . Poverty is general scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements.At ASTEP, we are deeply committed to empowering individuals who suffer from an absence of choice, especially children. The right to choose is a fundamental human right, and we strive to end the poverty that robs us of that. Wealth and Poverty What's the Government's Role? Introduction; What Is. Except for transfer payments and public assistance programs, all U.S. End Poverty 2015 We are the generation that can end poverty. Skip to primary content. End Hunger Universal Education Gender Equity Child Health Maternal Health Combat HIV/AIDS Environmental Sustainability Global. In the article 'The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty' by Herbert J. Gans, Gans states that the quality of life in America will severely diminish among all classes of people if we do not acknowledge the. This video sums up Gans' project well, This man has several degrees yet is still having trouble finding a job and says himself that it might be because he is black, which is one of the major points Gans references in his work. Poverty is not equivalent to Moral Failure. In his first point Gans is trying to debunk the connection made between poverty and immorality. Gans' continues and states the double standard that has developed among the classes in American society. When was the last time you heard someone say . For example a teenage mother is only really seen as immoral if the family she comes from is bellow the poverty line. If the teenage girl was the daughter of a rich family it would never be known. Private Sector. According to Gans, firms (businesses) are outsourcing their manufacturing jobs to China and other places that have low labor costs. At the same time firms are requiring more and more skilled labor, meaning those that they have to train to operate a piece of equipment or be a manager, positions that the everyday person without training couldn't do.
Private firms outsourced jobs over seas and demand skilled over unskilled labor. Leaving those people who are considered unskilled out of luck. For example the auto industry. There are almost no laborers in the auto industry anymore, cars are made by machines. The government has also played its role in keeping the poor in poverty by issuing welfare programs and social services that decrease the number considered middle class and increased the gap between lower and upper class citizens. A 1. 0 point defense of those in poverty and the beginning steps of how to change in the representation of poverty. Currently poverty is synonymous with immorality, they are seen as . Any natural born American will not do that today. This is especially challenging for blacks who are forced, due to their financial situation, to compete with immigrants who will work for a sub- minimum wage. Poor blacks, like others below the poverty line are seen as lazy, and free riders, which can leas to discrimination, or at least what appears to be, making blacks compete for sub- minimum wage jobs with immigrants. Because of the notion Gans makes stated above this is very hard for them. Debunking the Metaphors of Undeservingness. Gans uses the idea that the poor are unskilled . These people deemed under class citizens are deemed that way because of the switch to skilled labor over unskilled labor and the fact that they have to rely on politicians and officials to determine their welfare eligibility, which is virtually impossible for most poor. The Dangers of Class Stereotype. Gans remarks that because of this idea of undeserving poor, there is discrimination by the middle and upper class against those who fall below the poverty line. This misrepresentation of blacks is brought around by being poor, for decades the income disparity between poor blacks and poor whites has been large. This is largely due to the fact of discrimination since they were brought here as slaves centuries ago. Improving Reporting and scholarship about the Poor. My Understanding of the Representation of Poverty: Coming to Terms with Gans. Gans makes some excellent points in his article, with a strong claim and excellent cohesiveness throughout it. I am still not convinced if the problem with the representation of poverty can be fixed, at least not using this article as an example. For starters Gans references all these topics, skilled versus unskilled labor, sub- minimum wages, and other labor statistics, all of which belong to the field of labor economics. As I stated previously Gans is not a labor economist, he is a Sociologist; I do not doubt his level of intelligence as a scholar, for it surpasses mine as a student. Gans makes some excellent economic points, but you can not blame the increase in poverty on the progression of the American economy. Yes we have decreased the number of manufacturing jobs; that decrease has allowed us to increase production ten fold if not more. If it were not for the de- industrialization of the past 4. If we are to truly change the representation of poverty in America we need to look at the root causes of poverty and find solutions to those causes of poverty. Some of which Gans has pointed out in the article. On top of this he makes a very cohesive argument in explaining how the war on the poor is being made, along with a lengthy defense of the poor and idealistic views on how the poor should be represented. Gans is very direct in his writing, in particular with this piece, he gets to the point , he's not implicit. This is an important concept all though not detrimental to his article if he was, it allows us as readers to more easily see his project and to have a better understanding of what his project really is. Limitations. Gans although he writes a very good argument uses almost no sources for his article. This can be a good thing being that it is entirely his opinion but for this case this is a serious limitation. He is a very astute man and makes a very convincing argument besides that, if he had used source material and real data to back up his point, his project would be that much stronger. He does not take the opposition into account at all, his article is very one sided, being a magazine article I am not expecting anything major being that his audience is going to be random people on the street who do not have a degree in sociology. He still does not mention any opposite opinion that might be plausible, it is very one sided. He also looks at this with an outsider perspective, unlike others who have written about poverty, Barbara Ehrenreich being one of them, he cannot fully understand poverty without being immersed in it himself, as he states in his argument defending those below the poverty line., Gans states how society should work without giving any examples of how to fix the initial issues. His biggest problem with this article is its level of idealism, ti puts forth no plausible solution to changing the representation of poverty. The poor according to Gans do not feel that they need to be responsible until society accepts the responsibility of helping them get out of the poverty cycle.
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