Years ago, the United States economy plummeted due to excessive rick taking and irresponsible spending practices. This left many families desperate for work, housing, and food. President Roosevelt put the New Deal in place, creating opportunities for work, and the economy was restored. While this was very helpful to the country, over time, social programs have become less effective. It has become difficult for people to remove themselves from government support. Individuals collect benefits from welfare, and in doing so, maintain a low standard of income. While financial aid programs and incentives were a great idea, today, these policies keep people from growing as successful and professional individuals. One problem with welfare is that the term “poor” is too broad to be …show more content…
Lisa Crooms says that “being visibly poor was seen as criminal because it was thought to be caused by conscious and deliberate choices to act in ways that were out of step with mainstream norms and mores regarding wage work, family structure, and reproduction.” The first reason why being poor is looked at as a criminal like act is because destitution is something that they could have prevented from happening to themselves. The reactions of many people when seeing someone homeless is to think of adjectives like “dirty,” “unintelligent,” or “lazy”. She also explains that poor communities and the people who live in them are seen as criminal-like from the outside because of their desperation (Crooms). Because of these negative feelings toward poor people, many working class people are angered that the unemployed are eligible for benefits that they can’t receive. It’s even more upsetting when this money is going to people who are the so-called “undeserving poor”. After all, someone lazy and unwilling to work shouldn’t be provided the minimum requirements to live while others have been working their entire lives to provide for their
Hooks pointed out that many of his professors insinuated that there were negative stereotypes of being poor. Moreover, that self-esteem is linked to financial wealth; women he met with were on government assistance, but chose to get further in debt to appear to have money, never wanting to be labeled poor. Hooks was raised to believe that morals and values made one rich; that one could have all the money in the world but still be poor because of their attitude. Who’s accountable for why people in our society are poor? It’s seems a vicious circle that is hard for poor kids to escape. Many people with low incomes are “intelligent, critical thinkers struggling to transform their circumstances” (Hooks, p. 488) There are many resources, such as theaters that are empty all day, to pay it forward and help the less fortunate gain skills from college students and professors sharing their knowledge. Barbara Ehrenreich’s “How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty” questions why negative stereotypes of untrustworthiness in poor people. Because of this mistrust, the introduction of drug testing for government aid was passed. Why are those negative connotations associated with poverty? “Poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.”
According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.
In the article “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor” by Bell Hooks, one of Hook’s primary purposes for this article is how people view the poor in a negative connotation because of the media. In the article Hooks views the lower class and the higher class different than most. She starts off her article talking about the poor are now being represented. One of her first arguments is talking about the labels the poor has and how poverty places a part in that.
In fact, many believed the poor were just worthless idlers who were not even trying to better there own situations, but instead were taking the high roads away from taxes and worries (Document 11). There were many observed instances in which those in poverty, when given the opputinity to better their lives, chose to stay poor and recieve handouts. One such cause comes from William Turner, and English Physican for Lord Earl of Somerset when he recounts how poor folks often begged on the Earl's door but when Turner offered to help health wise, they chose to stay sick and beg (Document 6). Similar to modern day abusers of the American Wellfare system, officals became very angry with idlers who did nothing but feed off the wealth of the working class in the form of alms. They even believed that idlers should be expelled from their communites as they only bring economics down (Document 5). Many also thought that in order received any aid at all a person must be working. Reforms such as the Workhouse Test Act in 1723, though this occured later than the period of discussion, were a result of these opinions. This act, among others, required that people work a set amount of hours before they could receive any aid. Even the famous Cardinal Richelieu of France believed that the idlers were “good-for-nothings” who were restricting those who actually needed help from getting it while they were being lazy and greedy (Document 8). This opinion of certain poor indivudals being lazy and abusing resources remains amoung those in power even today in
Not only do the homeless not fight it but they admit themselves that they are not worthy of being praised. This attitude is exemplified by Boris in his talk with Orwell when Orwell first arrives and finds work as a plongeur, “Do you think a plongeur can afford a sense of honour?” (60). In saying this, Boris is proving the feelings that lurk behind those that work the low class jobs. They feel that they are so low that they do not even deserve their own honor. By not believing that they are worthy of their own honor they continue to hold themselves down.
In today’s America, there are many people who would either be disgusted at the very mention of Welfare or be highly grateful for its existence. I believe that in order for welfare to be more effective in America, there must be reform. From the time of its inceptions in 1935, welfare has lent a helping hand to many in crisis (Constitution Rights Foundation). However, at present many programs within the system are being abused and the people who are in real need are being cheated out of assistance. The year after the creation of welfare unemployment was just about twenty percent (Unemployment Statistics). The need for basic resources to survive was unparallel. Today, many people face the same needs as many did during the 30s. Some issues with
The government used the New Deal as a foundation to build new welfare programs. Medicaid and Medicare were created to help poor and elderly people with their medical costs. Support for welfare programs has declined from the 1980’s to the present day, even with efforts to try and improve support. Since the New Deal and the Great Society programs, the support for the welfare programs has been declining. President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) bill to try and increase the support for welfare programs by helping low-income children.
Welfare has been a safety net for many Americans, when the alternative for them is going without food and shelter. Over the years, the government has provided income for the unemployed, food assistance for the hungry, and health care for the poor. The federal government in the nineteenth century started to provide minimal benefits for the poor. During the twentieth century the United States federal government established a more substantial welfare system to help Americans when they most needed it. In 1996, welfare reform occurred under President Bill Clinton and it significantly changed the structure of welfare. Social Security has gone through significant change from FDR’s signing of the program into law to President George W. Bush’s proposal of privatized accounts.
Welfare recipients are now expected to get a job within the first two years of receiving assistance. It is unclear what will happen when people are forced off of public assistance. In 1998 there was a 3% decline in the poverty level, yet a 35% decline in the number of people receiving public assistance. (Morales, Sheafor, 2000). It is clear that ending AFDC did not solve the problem of poverty in the United States.
These findings are disheartening, and seem to be in occurrence within the United States as opposed to Europe. Within Denmark, the use of high taxes and extreme government spending going towards the prevention of those living on the streets helps to eliminate this stigma. One finding discussed in agreeance to that of Tompsett et al. (2003), who outlines that those in Germany and other surrounding countries showed more compassion and want to help the homeless than those within the US, a money hungry country relying on the wealth of the white male, where other races and social classes are forgotten about. Similarly, this study looked at the biases working adult students, who were mostly from the same economic status, perceived homeless and the ways in which they believe this occurs, the following is their
More often than not, the homeless are viewed as weak and helpless. They are seen in movies as street beggars, and are vehicles of pity and remorse to touch the hearts of the viewers. Moreover, the media trains its audiences to believe that homelessness comes from the fault of the person. They are “bums, alcoholics, and drug addicts, caught in a hopeless downward spiral because of their individual pathological behavior” (427). In reality, it is the perpetuating cycle of wealth that keeps them in at a standstill in their struggles. The media only condones this very same cycle because it trains the masses to believe that people are poor due to their bad decisions. This overall census that the poor are addicts and alcoholics only makes it easier to drag their image further through the mud, going as far as calling them “crazy.” This is highlighted in shows such as Cops, or Law & Order. With the idea that these people are bad news it is easy to “buy into the dominant ideology construction that views poverty as a problem of individuals” (428). Although some of the issues of the poor are highlighted through episodic framing, for the most part the lower class is a faceless group who bring no real value to the
Poverty is an issue in America that has become a growing problem. While it may not necessarily be an issue that gains a lot of attention from people in today’s society, it is still a problem that should be addressed, especially in times of economic hardship like the ones that we are currently experiencing. Money has become tight for a lot of people, but there are still those that have always had a problem meeting the needs that they have in everyday life. In order to address this problem, the government put into place many government aid programs that are designed to help those when they are truly in need of it. However, it seems that today there are many people who are receiving government aid that do not truly need it. These are the people that cheat the system and the tax payers who are paying for the benefits that they are receiving.
...stic things in order to live a better, more sound, and overall healthier life. Juxtaposition makes the audience want to follow through with the purpose. Exemplification causes the audience to realize the extent of their materialistic nature. A definition of the average homeless person’s terms allows him to build his ethos and consequently allow the audience to believe and follow his purpose. A majority of people are a part of the middle class, and this majority tends to judge the poor for their lifestyle whether it be through Dumpster diving or begging on the streets. However, as proven by the essay, these people have no right to do so because the poor do, in reality, have a greater sense of self than these middle-class people, similar to the rich. The middle-class citizens must no longer act the victim; instead, they should be working on becoming more sentimental.
Throughout history there has always been a lower class society and some even lower than that which are known as the homeless. The homeless are people who don’t own homes or don’t live in their own home so they have to live in public places like shelters or even on the street. Homeless like to come out from the shadows and target the weak like a father with his daughter. They target specific groups so they know they can get money out of them easily instead of having to work for it. Homeless people are lazy to get jobs unless they are handed it so they would just sit down on their butts and do nothing until an opportunity comes to them. Homeless people are lazy and don’t want to work for themselves and have to get others to do their work for them because we think they are useless and therefore won’t do anything.
When lots of people walk down the street and a homeless person is sitting there what do they do? They walk on and mumble something like get a job or try harder. Most poor people can’t do much more to fix their social class. It’s like they are stuck there. In Tammy Crabtree’s story, her family suggests this idea, “I growed up poor, my dad worked hard. He worked 27 years..........and it ain’t easy.” (People Like Us: Social Class in America) Tammy and her family have nothing else to do. They have worked all their life and been smart with their money. They do not have anything else to do to make their life better. People that are poor and don’t look the best can not get a good job either. They are stuck in that one job because no other place wants to hire them.