In these episodes of Slumming It, you experience the horror of the urban environments on earth. Kevin McCloud decides to go to Dharavi, Mumbai where you see how the water is contaminated, the sanitation isn’t the best, and you’ll notice how diseases are easily prevalent. Dharavi has a population of 16 million people and almost half of them live in slums. Slums are usually located in over populated areas. Regardless of the obstacles these people face, they maintain a sense of spirit and have high hopes that things will be changed. You can see how religion plays a huge part in their spirit. The fact that the city wants to tear down these slums is sad and selfish, they should be helping the community sanitize and reconstruct these slums for these …show more content…
There can be inequalities within a society and sometimes it may be better off than others, but sometimes inequality can make those who have less than us seem better off than if they would have been in another scenario where they’d all be equal. For example, in Slumming It, these citizens aren’t taken seriously through the social systems and the reason being is because if they were to maximize the needs of these citizens living in the slums, they would be in better standards. They have 20 plus people living in each household. Instead of the government taking charge to better the lives of these citizens, their treated as a disease and no one wants to get close or fix their situation. They want to demolish their homes to build an airport. So, where are all these poor citizens going to live? They should have the right to be given a home or be given the right to their own …show more content…
We don’t know if we are going to be rich or poor, straight, gay, black, white, brown, etc. We don’t know what we will become or who we will be or what we will have. We will never know our state in society. Rawls believes that we determine the fair principles for society. For example, in Slumming It these families didn’t know they were going to end up in these slums with limited sanitation and water contamination, but little do they know that they didn’t choose that life. They don’t know if they change their minds and don’t demolish the slums and they invest in these homes. You never know the route life may take you and that’s what Rawls wants to
“The greatest challenge to Rawls’s theory from racial/ethnic minorities could well be his insistence on basing overlapping consensus on the “basic institutions” of U.S. society: appreciations and understandings developed by the dominant group in society, but without taking into consideration oppressed peoples. Liberty, equality, and the common good are indeed important values. However, the issues is, What do they mean in the twenty-first century in a heterogeneous society integrated by others besides Euro-American males?”
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
“Understanding people who are homeless also plays a very important role – as many poor people who are being provided homes through government schemes are renting their homes to others and they are going back to their previous dwellings (slums/huts). The solution to slums is not to evict people, or to eradicate the dwellings, but to create conditions so that people can improve their own dwellings, with the assistance of the community. One of the best ways to do that is by giving slum-dwellers security of tenure, so they know they are protected against arbitrary, unfair, or illegal eviction. If people know that, even if they only make a couple of hundred dollars a year, which many people do, they'll spend money improving their house that they wouldn't otherwise do if they were afraid of being evicted. If governments acted in partnership with people in this way, many good things could
In order to be radical about poverty, we need to understand the difference between wealth and income. Income is a transfer of money by working or by gifts. On the other hand, wealth is more of a total of accumulated assets that has been stored for a period of time (Conley, pg. 253). Wealth is not distributed equally among the public. (NCH, 2016, http://nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/). Declining wages has also caused a lot of stress and increase people’s inability to pay for their housing or other needs. If there are affordable housing, it’s usually in an unsafe and polluted environment or it’s extremely overcrowded that people have a higher chance of being homeless or inadequate housing arrangements than getting their applications accepted (Why Are People Homeless Research, 2016, NCH). Also, privatizing housing will increase the accumulation of wealth of the power elite or those that own property and lands by their pricing in rents. Most people go through depression because of loss of home, jobs, or a sense of self. Often times, the lack education about health and they don’t receive adequate support for medical care if they are homelessness. Poverty is also treated as a criminal offence and if people were to ask for public assistance, they have to prove their eligibility. If they have a criminal record, they are
The United States, a place where anyone can “pick themselves up by the bootstraps” and realize the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle. Well, for over 30 million Americans this is no longer possible. Though we live in the richest and most powerful country in the world there are many who are living under or at the precipice of the poverty level, “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty” (The Working Poor, 4). This translates to families of four making around 18,850$ a year. And as soon as they find work or move just slightly above that 18,850$ a year (which is still a meager and deprived way to live) they are cut off from welfare checks and other “benefits”, “they [working poor] lose other supports designed to help them such as food stamps and health insurance, leaving them no better off-and sometimes worse off-than when they were not working” (The Working Poor, 40). The working poor find themselves in a trap of dead-end, minimum wage jobs, and complicated, under funded government programs.
Economic inequality is ingrained in our society. Because of this fact, many would argue that “that’s just how it is,” but in reality this is not how a community is suppose to function. As Michael Sandel writes in his book Justice, “As inequality deepens, rich and poor live increasingly separate lives.” Sandel makes an excellent point. As economic divisions, such as the ones present in the United States, worsen, the classes diverge on every level. Wealthy people attend different schools, purchase luxury cars, and live in gated communities. Meanwhile, the poor live in squalor, use public transportation, and attend failing schools. Aside from the lack of a quality education making it harder to escape poverty, the poor are from birth at a disadvantage to those on the other side of the economic scale. The United States is not a land of guaranteed equality of result, that is...
The urban poor are often put out of view because of the need for an industrialized society, yet the consequences of both an elite and middle class directly influence the people who cannot support that type of lifestyle. The gaps created need to be looked upon and treated, as Mike Davis believes this planet will become so dependent on slum life that urban life will disappear.
Some people believe that poverty is beneficial. For example, Herbert J. Gans. is a big fan of poverty. In his essay, “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All,” he explains the benefits of having poor people in society. “The existence of poverty ensures that society’s “dirty work” will be done.” -Herbert J. Gans (Gans, 1971.) He believes that the poverty level needs to be relatively high to support the comfortable lives of middle and upper class people. The working poor support the other classes. However, it is very difficult for people in the lower class to make a move upwards. Generally in the “dirty jobs” pay very little and there is little to no opportunity for advancement. Often times, there is an ascribed status for those in the lower class. Since their parents were poor, they have little to no opportunities to have a life any different. It is very difficult for these individuals to attend college, due to rising tuition prices. In today’s society it is nearly impossible to attain a high paying job without a college degree. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs have been moved overseas to save money, but that means finding work in America is very difficult (Frontline Charts, 2013.) Even if they can find work, wages for such jobs have been dropping and are often not enough to support a family or even
Rawls creates a hypothetical society, via a thought experiment known as the “Veil of Ignorance,” in which all that you knew of yourself is eliminated from your mind to allow you to come to a rational decision on how you would like your society to be organized. Rawls principle is that under a social contract what is right must be the same for everyone. The essence of Rawls' “veil of ignorance” is that it is designed to be a representation of persons purely in their capacity as free and equal moral persons. Out of this experiment Rawls provides us with two basic p...
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines gentrification as “the transformation of neighborhoods from low value to high value…gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a community’s history and culture and reduces social capital often by shifting a neighborhood’s characteristics by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods.” Gentrification disproportionately affects special populations, including but not limited to the poor, women, children, the elderly and a vast majority of minority groups.
Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.
middle of paper ... ... The individual in the original position is unlikely to gamble their human rights for the greater good, particularly if they are mutually disinterested, so it is unreasonable in practicality to assume such altruism on their behalf. To conclude, Rawls’ strengths lie in his focus on the individual, protection of liberty, and equal opportunity, which supports a healthy society. The criticisms of his theory include a question as to what is best for society as a whole, dismissal of beneficial inequalities and the potential for society to develop its own code of ethics as it has in reality.
Chris Abani's quotes perfectly sets the tone for the chapter. Davis starts this chapter by referring to "The Challenge of Slums," a report published by the UN-HABITAT. He dedicates the first two paragraphs to build credibility and validity of the report. Davis (2006) writes that the report is a "truly global audit of urban poverty" (p. 20). In the 'A Global Slum Census' section, Davis provides factual data and figures to portray the staggering rise in urban slum population, particularly of least-developed countries. He writes that only six percent of the city population of the developed countries includes residents of slums, while 78.2 percent of urbanites in the least-developed countries resides in
In this content, I will be discussing Rawls theory of justice how is it about, but I will not go into too much detail. The aim of writing the script is to explicitly depict the point of Rawls thought of experience then show how this theory is in disadvantage. Rawls theory of justice is a thought of experiment, therefore, I will show its flaws and how this theory can be debunked meaning how this theory cannot bring about such justice which we cannot truly comprehend.
Ensuring that all members of society are taken care of and are treated respectfully is crucial to ensuring the well being of society as a whole. To say that those less fortunate should be left to fend for themselves, or that it is not our responsibility as citizens and responsible members of society to assist those in need of help is simply selfish. How would you feel if you were the one in need of assistance? We the people that make up society must contribute our time, resources and effort to help others who are less privileged and more susceptible to sickness due to their living conditions and the situation that they are stuck in. Ultimately, society stands to benefit when we take care of those members of society that are in need of shelter, food, financial assistance etc. Furthermore, in doing so, we are also keeping our community safe by eliminating the need for those less fortunate to turn to crime as a way to feed themselves and their family. One can only be pushed so far until self-preservation becomes the most important factor to a person, thus pushing those who are hungry to resort to stealing, robbing and other such crimes to survive.