Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
functionalist theory and poverty
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: functionalist theory and poverty
Throughout everyone 's life there will be struggles in every situation, some more than others. One main issue our society deals with in today 's world is money. Money has an unbelievable power for only being a piece of paper. People nowadays will most likely do anything for money as it is a key attribute to today 's society. As society has improved and advanced throughout history money has become more of a problem for several people in the world. With more technologies being created and more advancements in useful everyday things the temptations to spend more and more money everyday increases drastically. When money is being talked about there is usually three classes, the upper class, middle class, and lower class. Being in the upper …show more content…
This analysis is not intended to suggest that because it is often functional, poverty should exist, or that it must exist. For one thing, poverty has many more dysfunctions that functions: for another, it is possible to suggest functional alternatives. For example, society’s dirty work could be done without poverty, either by automation or by paying “dirty workers” decent wages. Nor is it necessary for the poor to subsidize the many activities they support through their low-wage jobs. This would, however, drive up the costs of these activities, which would result in higher prices to their customers and clients. Similarly, many of the professionals who flourish because of the poor could be given other roles. Social workers could provide counseling to the affluent, as they prefer to do anyway; and the police could devote to traffic and other organized crime.” Poverty is a thing of deviance in today’s world of society. The poor and less fortunate are an aggregate of society. Though poverty is shown to be a negative there are several positives to it as shown by Gans in his report. Poverty is a universal problem, but with the positive outlook on the problem it can be better. Poverty strikes almost everywhere around the world and impacts several people even not living in poverty. Though the positives that may be looked at as good are completely wrong compared to the bad. The struggles some people endure through poverty are just completely unjust and inhumane at times. With all the events that have occurred with job loss and other economic problems this has created a huge struggle for middle and lower class americans. Poverty is a problem that is always a work in progress to fix, but maybe eventually it will all be
Poverty as we know it is not a new issue at all, but none the less it’s a crucial problem that plagues much of the world. So much so, that it’s been stated that three billion people live off of less than $2.50 each day (dosomething). Poverty is a debilitating state to be stuck in, it takes so much more from people than just from a financial aspect. Someone who’s suffering from poverty have higher chances of experiencing a medical problem. People in this economic state also have much lower odds at succeeding in important areas such as school or finding a job. Poverty does not use a narrow view, instead it plays effects on people in much wider variety than just financially.
Many of us view poverty as mainly a third world issue, because it tends to have little effect on the majority of individuals on a recurring basis. Yet, it is a difficult situation prevalent in all types of civilization, despite the overall advances in technology, medicine and education that one country may have over the other. Poverty does not necessarily have to affect a specific individual, but as a country, it affects all levels of production; even when the production of a single country begins to falter, it could potentially have major effects on others, creating a continuous cycle.“Poverty is color blind”, it does not discriminate, and is a societal problem that needs to be dealt with today (Fullerton, par. 3). If not helped or solved,
When one thinks of poverty often the mental picture that comes to mind is of single parent welfare, dependent, women and unemployed, drug-addicted, alcoholic lackadaisical men. The children are often forgotten. The impact of poverty, the destruction of crime and stigmatization of the violence on the children is more devastating and irreversible than the miseducation and illiteracy that most often companies poverty. The implication is not the poverty can not be overcome but that the cycles of teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, and dropping out of high school continues and are hard to break. The badges of poverty are just as addictive and capitiving as any disease such as alcohol or drugs.
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
Poverty is a potential outcome for everyone. It’s sneaky and many people fall victim to it every year. No one believes that they have the potential to fall into debt, but it can happen through a string of bad luck, time running short, and other possibilities that can’t be controlled. People who are struggling with difficulty believe that there is no way out because no one will help them. However, there are ways for us, as a society, to help those who are short on income receive the help that they need. Many of the impoverished are thought to be slackers, addicts, or self-destructive to their lives. Society can help each other by dismembering the stereotypes given to people who are underneath the “Poverty Line” that they used as wedges between the classes. Labels given to those who’re poor have nothing to do with who they are as humans.
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
Poverty is not wished upon, but area such the least industrialized nations there is more of it. There are many ways to analyze poverty. Functionalists believe that poverty is good for the economic and the workforce. Symbolic interactionists believe that it has a purpose but for what reason. While, conflict theorists believe that the system of poverty is flawed. That statement is more believable because calling someone poor is just using a label. It does not look at their family history, medical history or even their education.
America is divided into two main groups, rich or poor. There is some grey area among these groups which is referred to as the middle class. The problem with the middle class is that most people think they belong in the middle class because they do not want to associate themselves with neither rich nor poor; there are stigmas attached to each side of the spectrum.
Gans wrote an essay on the uses of poverty (Gans, 1971). He came to the conclusion that our society needs the poor to function. Gans gave thirteen different reasons as to why we need the poor, and what their functions are. The first is that we need poverty to make sure that the “dirty work” gets done. By dirty work, he means jobs that are dangerous, underpaid, menial, temporary, undignified, and physically dirty. Both the Neumann family and the Stanley family had to take up jobs that fit in with Gans’ first point. They took up jobs that barely gave them any money and they were physically dirty, such as basement waterproofing by Claude Stanley. The second function is that the poor subsidize economic activities to benefit the affluent by working at low wages. It apparently makes life for their employers easier because they have to pay them less. The two families in the documentary were paid very low wages. They knew exactly how it felt. The third function is that the poor create jobs for the rest of society to serve or protect those in poverty. Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters are examples of services that help to protect the poor. Without the poor, those jobs would not be necessary. Both families could have used help from those services to get them through their rough patch of poverty. The fourth function is that the poor prolong the economic usefulness of items like day old bread and old fruit and vegetable. They buy the stuff that others do not want to buy. Secondhand clothes and deteriorating building are also included. The Stanley family went to thrift shops to buy their clothes. They couldn’t afford to buy the clothes from regular stores. The fifth function is that the poor are a deviant subculture that help uphold the legitimacy of societal norms. Gans says that the rest of the society can use the poor to be punished for being lazy, promiscuous, and dishonest. They are most likely to be caught for it. Some
I agree with Gans stance because in the article The Positive Functions of Poverty, he makes several valid points while shedding light on the economic, social, cultural, and political functions (Gans, 1972). In my opinion, Gans sums it up best by making mention of poverty being functional for those who do not struggle with the thoughts of where their next meal will coming from
Gans’ essay, “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All”, is extremely important in the analysis of the frontline documentary. Gans has a bit of a different approach on poverty and the poor. For example, he says, “Today, poverty is more maligned than the political machine ever was; yet it, too, is a persistent social phenomenon.” Basically, he argues that the poor are a very important part in society. He goes on to explain different functions of poverty. First, he states that the existence of poverty ensures that society’s dirty work will be done. Society in some ways forces the poor to do these jobs because they almost always don’t have the choice, and they make them do these at low wages. This was one of the hard things that the two families were facing. They both had to be satisfied with low wage dirty work jobs to get by. No matter how hard they tried to find better jobs, they just couldn’t push through. Another benefit that the poor have to offer the world is that poverty creates jobs for a number of occupations that protect the rest of society from them. Without the poor, the police force would be minuscule. Also, the poor buy goods others do not want. This helps the economy immensely because these products would eventually just be thrown out if the poor didn’t purchase them. The poor are also culturally recognized in history. For example, most Americans listen to the blues, which originated from the southern poor. And on top of that, they
The world contains a lot of societies, cultures, and classes. Each household belongs to some social class that represents their level of education, their work position, and their financial status. These different classes have created a conflict between people. It fills rich people's minds with the thought that poor people are criminals, and that conflict ended up with creating poverty. The authors Gilbert, Kahl, Magnet, and Gans are discussing the important causes and reasons that created poverty in comparing and contrasting these points with each other.
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an
Poverty, also known as the silent killer, exists in every corner of the world. In fact, almost half of the world’s population lives in poverty. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 46.7 million people living in poverty the year of 2014 (1). Unfortunately, thousands of people die each year due to this world-wide problem. Some people view poverty as individuals or families not being able to afford an occupational meal or having to skip a meal to save money. However, this is not the true definition of poverty. According to the author of The Position of Poverty, John Kenneth Galbraith, “people are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls radically behind that of the community”, which means people
He cites dirty work and job creation as one of the economic functions that poverty serves (Gans 278-279). Dirty work refers to menial jobs that are important in society, but can only be performed by people with no other life options. Some professions, such as policemen and charity organisations, benefit from the existence of the poor. The author notes that, as much as these institutions claim to be in existence for the goodness of all, they would have no purpose if the poor did not