Theories About the Causes of Poverty - Research Paper Example

The Subculture of Poverty Poverty is thought to make people either highly fatalistic or greatly frustrated. Both ways, it is like living in a lesser world. There can be no foolproof theory about how poverty originated in the world. But it is assumed that either the more powerful might have deprived the less powerful of their resources or the more able-bodied or able-minded person might have marched ahead while the less able-bodied/minded person stayed back. These are also theoretically, the two dominant streams of thought in the world about poverty- 1) the Marxist one based on class divisions which describes how poverty sustains the interest of the dominant class and 2) the rightist theories, which says that the poor themselves are to blame for them remaining poor (Blacksacademy, 1). One can accept any one of these positions or even a combination of the two (interactionist approach) in order to understand poverty. Though scholars have a common tendency to take either of these sides, in this essay, the position taken is one that follows the interactionist approach in order to leave behind the reductionism of leftist and rightist theories. To put the blame on the class division alone is like saying that an individual can make no difference in the society. Similarly if a position that the poor are to blame for their poverty is taken, it will be like forgetting the role of the social structures in creating and sustaining poverty. This is why it s true that “the structure of society creates a culture of poverty among the poor, which perpetuates the structure of society” and this in turn again reinforces the culture of poverty and so on (Blacksacademy, 1). It will be based on the understanding that the structure of society is the root cause and the conditioning of the poor (by the culture created by that structure), the sustaining factor that this essay would look into the subculture of poverty. Also, this essay will prove that the negative attributes commonly associated with the members of the subculture of poverty are based on assumptions rather than facts. One visible sign of poverty is the presence of inexpensive accessories like cloth on the body of a person. In extreme cases, poverty can be visible on the body of the person as an impoverished state in the health. But the subculture of poverty is marked with more complex and subtle features. For example, it can be associated with “families …characterized by high divorce rates, with mothers and children abandoned” (Blacksacademy, 2). Poverty also represents the existence of people, devoid of sufficient food, material facilitates, community life, participation in the political processes of the country, and access to the privileges available to the ‘not poor’ individual. Apart from these physical manifestations, the most important social aspect of poverty is that it evolves itself into a culture of sort. Poverty is found to attain a historical dimension as well as a social pathology. Along with that, it has become somewhat hereditary, a family heritage. For example, in the popular poor man-rich girl stories in the movies, or in the rags to riches tales that have been written, the common theme is the same rightist view which proposes that it is the will of the individual that determines his/her economic status. But the culture of poverty exhibits a totally different scene. Once poor, always poor and that too, generations poor, could be the statement that could be closer to reality. In such a scenario, there has been a tendency to define a poor man/woman based on the so-called attributes associated with the subculture of poverty. Almost all the discussions on the subculture of poverty have thus been highly individualistic. The purpose of almost all these discussions has been to prove that the subculture of poverty is an inferior culture. This can be seen in the common theoretical positions narrated in the following paragraphs. The website, law.jrank.org has stated that poverty is supposed to be a breeding ground of fatalistic views- “values and norms that discourage work and investment of money or energies.” This is also partially the opinion of Niskanen when he said that welfare is a “cause and consequence” of poverty. The observed lethargy instilled by poverty might be thus, one negative aspect of this subculture. And this could be one reason why poverty has evolved itself into a subculture. But there is also strong evidence to show that the subculture of poverty has many positive attributes of self-knowledge as well. It can be inferred from many personal accounts (from all over the world) that the poor people are more kind, more willing to share whatever resources they have, more believing in a community culture and more straight forward (Weston). When Kath Weston narrates his experiences as a travelling student (supported under a meagerly funded government program), in his book, ‘Traveling Light: On the Road With America’s Poor’, instances proving these claims abound. As a preamble to his narrative on America’s poor, Weston has described how it feels to be poor in a rich country like America. He (Weston) has proved that poverty is a fact in America and the income inequality is increasing drastically between the rich and the poor (p.16 of the introduction). He (Weston) has also shown that the life of a poor person in America is full of worries, lacks respect and is excluded from mainstream public life (p.18-20 of the introduction). But even at the face of all these, it is shown, people are kind-hearted and they try to overcome their difficulties by sharing their worries with the family and the community (Weston). It could be the humbling caused by poverty that makes the poor more tolerant and kind to others. Marxism has strongly refuted the claim that “people are poor by choice” and said, it is the exploitation of the labor of some people by some other people that creates poverty among the first group, and thus as such creates poverty (cited in Galston and Hoffenberg, 259). From this viewpoint, the subculture of poverty can be understood as an offshoot of this kind of imposed poverty. It is this aspect of compulsion that gives poverty, its many attributes as a subculture even. The experiences narrated by Weston could be possibly interpreted based on the Marxian approach and the conclusion that would logically follow is, it is the internalized sharing of the common fate (or rather grievance) and self-pity against the imposed poverty that make the poor more empathetic and kind to others. Sometimes an increased rate of criminality is attributed to the subculture of poverty and some researchers also explain this criminality by saying that “carriers of this subculture are disinclined to strive to achieve, have limited patience, and are less likely to defer gratification, they act impulsively” (law.jrank.org). But this argument is refuted as well by applying the logic of middle class bias (an insensitive and ignorant approach to the plight of the poor) (law.jrank.org). This refutation has stressed the frustration felt by the poor people as “a byproduct of income gaps that are viewed as unjust by those in subordinate positions” (law.jrank). Here, it has to be kept in mind that there is no clear and precise statistics available yet on the connection of crime rates to poverty. And the potential of the rich to hide their crimes is overlooked. Also the notion of crime can be different for different subcultures. For example, for a poor person who is hungry and who has no money to buy food, stealing food might not look like a big crime. And, to deprive a group of the society of the basic needs of life , to keep them poor for ever, can be defined as a crime, by those who are poor. From this point of view, the rich people could be called, criminals. Showing off of masculinity is perceived as another attribute of the men, who belong to the subculture of poverty. The logic is that a man wants to feel that he is masculine enough so that his helplessness caused by poverty can be compensated with this feeling (Blacksacademy, 3). The other side of this social phenomenon could logically be the increasing male chauvinistic behavior towards (poor) women by these men. But there is no conclusive evidence available yet to suggest that. And, on the contrary, the common sense that prevails regarding poor people’s families has been that the poor families have better bonding inside. The mainstream society has a tendency to view poverty as a natural phenomenon and not to be bothered by it. For example, though American society teaches its children to share their food with other children in schools, the adults, as a moral rule, are generally not supposed to give food or money to the needy. The lack of educational opportunities and educational resources keep the children of the poor, chained to their poverty. Women, minority races, physically and mentally disabled persons, citizens of underdeveloped countries, widows, children, other marginalized groups-these are the groups in the society, most prone to poverty. Lack of power and resources, in some aspect or other, is the major factor that caused their poverty and sometimes became also a consequence of their poverty. All the above given instances provide information on the nature of the subculture of poverty. While some of them substantiate the leftist views, some give theoretical support to the rightist approach. But what all these instances and their discussion suggest is that, though it is a common practice to attribute only negative values like lethargy and criminalism to the subculture of poverty, that is not true. It has been shown that all such negative attributions are based on hearsay rather than facts. It is in this context that efforts to understand the subculture of poverty without the western bias and acknowledging the rich humanitarian tradition of this subculture, has to begin. Works Cited Blacksacademy, Theories of Poverty, December 2002. Print. Law.jrank.org, Urban Crime: Explaining Urban Crime, n.d. web. April 14, 2011, Urban Crime - Explaining Urban Crime Niskanen, William.A, Welfare and the Culture of Poverty, Cato Journal, Vol.16, No.1, Spring/Summer 1996.Print. Weston Kath, Traveling Light: On the Road With America’s Poor, Boston: Beacon Press, 2008. Print. Read More