Poverty in America: Both the Corner and the Wire, Research Paper Example

The issue of poverty discussed in this class through The Wire and The Corner manifests itself in modern life through myriad issues ranging from the social to the political and to the economic spheres. This paper will discuss contemporary poverty and its effects on families with the use of statistical data, journal articles and personal experience to focus on how best to address the plight of the working poor and poverty’s impact on race relations, education, criminality, drug use and family dynamics.

Race

One undeniable reality of poverty is that it often is associated with race relations. Statistical data demonstrates that poverty rates in the United States are significantly higher within certain ethnic groups versus society as a whole. This unfortunate phenomenon is a resistant and continuous trend as despite fluctuations in the American economy over the last thirty years, African-American unemployment rates have held at twice the rate of Caucasians. These numbers demonstrate clearly how external social factors such as racial discrimination and limited access to education can be correlated with poverty (Steensland, 2007). There are a variety of schools of thought on the issue of whether poverty can ever be overcome for these groups. While some thinkers hold that the American dream of prosperity is possible for all groups regardless of race, it is becoming more and more apparent that the dream of being able to afford a middle class life is ever more unobtainable for various reasons. One possible explanation for the abiding African-American poverty issue is the idea that it is a result of cultural factors instilled in African-Americans going back to the days of slavery. However, authors have argued that this position fails to grasp the significant impediments to economic advancement placed on African-Americans in the form of limited access to education and capital along with continued racial discrimination institutionalized in the legal and government systems (De Koster and Bruno, 1994).

Education

A second major component of poverty in modern society is the significant gender disparities in income. When one examines all of the poor older than the age of eighteen, one can seen that sixty percent are female. This tremendous gap in male and female income forces single parent female households to overwhelmingly share the burden of poverty and welfare support. This data is even more complex and damning when one considers that among poor households only 9% are headed by a single male, while 51% are headed by a single female (Davis, 2005). What is occurring in short is a feminization of poverty due to limited female access to higher education and promotion within businesses. This disturbing multi-decade trend affects all women across economic classes but most severely affects the poor who are already struggling to survive. Moreover, this trend of female poverty has not significantly improved in recent decades despite legislation targeted towards improving female employment and compensation in the workplace (Macionis, 2005). It is unclear what steps must be taken to address the situation beyond further anti-discrimination laws.

Gender

What both the problems faced by African-Americans and women in relation to poverty demonstrated is that access to higher education is critical to reducing poverty. Many minorities and women are unable to accomplish their educational goals which inevitably decrease the opportunities for future career advancement. Poor minorities once hoped that programs such as affirmative action legislation in the 1960s would help them climb out of poverty, only to realize that the level of financial backing enjoyed by other groups crippled their ability to pursue long-term educational goals. This can be seen when a head of a household is forced to choose between school supplies and food for his or her child. Government loan programs have also failed to address this issue as many programs for higher education are unobtainable to part-time working students as they only give loans to those with no means of financial support or extreme poverty. In addition, the psychological toll of poverty has a major impact on academic accomplishment as when one is struggling to feed one’s family there is little time to concentrate or excel on one’s report card. In short, the issue of poverty is directly linked to education but the solution to this decades-long issue has not been properly settled or resolved (Davis, 2005).

Technological Innovation

Another major byproduct of the poverty issue plaguing modern society is a profound rate of progress in technology and its repercussions over the last few decades. Developments in technology while often playing a great timesaving role often reduces the need for labor and other low education jobs. One example of this can be seen in the tremendous change wrought to the American automobile industry. Once a major American industry changes in automobile manufacturing technologies have profoundly changed the nature of its labor needs. The labor-intensive factory or assembly line has been replaced by robots and other mass producing technologies (Krugman and Wells, 2009). This change devastates the urban communities which formerly depended on these factory jobs and plunges the area into poverty, as in the case of Detroit, as manual laborers are replaced and there skills no longer necessary. In addition, the rise of technology has repercussions on poor families as discussed earlier they have less educational attainment and therefore less specialized skills in high demand, such as computer skills. This multifaceted issue of technology on urban poverty demands significant steps to ensure that new developments benefit all classes of society and that workers are integrated into these developments and not fired when no longer needed.

Substance Abuse

Another major issue affecting the well-being of poor single adults households is substance abuse. The most widely available and cheapest substance is alcohol. What can begin as simply a social dependency can becoming a coping mechanism and plunge a family into further poverty, unemployment, and despair. Similarly, street drugs are increasingly prevalent across the country What may start as a tactic to increase income through the selling of drugs can become an overpowering addiction. The drug trade offers significant financial rewards for individuals with limited educational opportunities but can destroy the moral fabric of a family and put the individual in significant legal and financial risk. In the Marxist tradition, it is argued that deviant labels are applied to people who interfere with the operation of capitalism (Macionis, 2005). However, for those individuals mired in a web of narcotics and poverty; the financial venture into the narcotic trade may become their only means of achieving capital. These individuals are unable to buy financial shares on the stock exchange or NASDAQ; they invest in the open market drug trade where they face the chance of financial success, criminal justice, societal ills and most certainly violence. In short, the world of substance abuse and the drug trade is a major societal ill that disproportionally affects the lives of the poor in modern society. It is unclear if tougher regulations and penalties will have any effect on this reality as the potential for financial gain is so dramatic (Krugman and Wells, 2009).

Crime

Moving from the drug trade to crime, it is clear that criminal behavior and the legal enforcement of crime legislation also disproportionally affects the poor in society. As a result of peer pressure, limited opportunities and the need to provide financially for their families, many poor youths find themselves immersed in a world of gangs and criminality to provide for their families. Disillusioned or unable to access neither an education nor having the patience to find legal but poor-paying employment these individuals chose a route to circumvent poverty and its socially ill effects (Davis, 2005). Many providers face the issue of stopping the criminal behavior or supporting it for the physical security and financial gain such criminal activities can bring to a household.  One scholar writes, “What happens when people cannot identify any kind of opportunity legal or illegal? Alternatively, those who fail to succeed even through criminal means may fall into “retreatist subcultures”, dropping out and abusing alcohol or other drugs.” (Macionis 194). This dynamic of poverty leading to criminality and eventually into further poverty severely affects inner city communities and is a circle that must be stopped through effective rehabilitation and job training.

Those individuals who are unable to escape from poverty often find themselves dependent on public assistance. Yet this assistance to poor families is not without a price and many argue that public assistance or the welfare system requires participants to live under too many constraints and possible violations of civil liberties in ensuring that they spend the money correctly. Welfare benefits combined with Medicaid, food stamps, and sometimes housing aid often “pay” better than a job at minimum wage, especially when child care costs, transportation, and other job related expenses are considered (Macionis 227). These conditions factor into the family dynamics relationships of the single head of households faced with poverty. The fathers of these families have potentially lost jobs, abandoned their education or missed other life goals thus creating tension in their impoverished families. In essence, welfare rather than the opportunity to work has made the head’s of these households irrelevant, thus diminishing the esteem of their children; and bringing to the forefront questions of abandonment and self loathing along with the social stigma of worthlessness (Davis, 2005). The dynamics facing a family are also altered when the head of the household is incarcerated, addicted to drugs or are lost due to street violence due to poverty. Education or the lack thereof in poor households results in a cascading effect traveling from one generation to another.

Solutions

So what is the overall effect of poverty on the single head of a household? The overall outcome of all of the factors discussed in this paper is to have an overwhelmingly destructive effect on households of poor families, particularly for minority inner city communities where the provider is African-American or a woman. The support system that society provides is extremely restrictive on an individual’s lifestyle; and it can be somewhat bias in respect to gender relationships that may generate any income. Racial identity is also another variable that factors significantly into poverty; however, there appears to be more assistance available to non-blacks and other minority families. The poverty statistics that have been described fail to lift those African American single women out of poverty, which represents a significant number of those families receiving aid. Any future efforts to combat poverty must directly address how to improve the lives of this community and help reverse the social factors which have resulted in their poverty.

Conclusion

Despite the United States being the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, we continue to face significant poverty. When these poor people engage in criminal behavior they are incarcerated leading to of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world. The vast majority of these people are poor and from minority communities. In recent years, society has increased punishment for numerous crimes. We increased punishments for drug abuse, theft, burglary, robbery and car stealing. Society has implemented strict new laws such as 3-strike laws, 1-strike laws and career criminal laws which result in increased rates of imprisonment, further poverty and no improvement of society. Poor people are going to prison at alarming rates. The prison population in California is approximately 160,000 and has doubled since 1987. The majority of these inmates are minorities and poor whites (Davis, 2005). So, even though it is very clear that our criminal justice system is broken, and many within the system have lost confidence in it, we keep pursuing the same solutions. More punishment for longer terms seems to be our only response. Why do we persist in addressing the symptoms of poverty rather than the causes? I believe because we have sufficiently isolated the poor who are not like “us”, and sufficiently demeaned them, that we have become indifferent to their plight. It is a matter of insensitivity and arrogance. Society is more concerned about social status, our houses, our cars and our vacations than we are about taking care of one another.

Our unwillingness or inability to educate ourselves about poverty and do something about it is astounding. Our failure in this regard, may ultimately be very destructive to our democracy. There is already a perception in this country that giving up a few Constitutional rights is a fair exchange for personal safety. There are other less drastic solutions however; solutions which do not exact increasingly severe jail sentences, solutions that do not further isolate poor minorities, but solutions which reach the causes of poverty and crime. Angela Davis, a prominent Civil Rights activist, noting the alarming rates of imprisonment of young black men, and the need for new solutions said this; “Prison should not be the catch all solution to all of the social problems that we have from mental illness to homelessness, to lack of health care, to the lack of education….We’re saying we need different kinds of institutions. We need drug programs that are accessible from the street and that are free. We need better schools. We need schools that don’t look and function like prisons.” (Davis, 2005). We know drug courts work. In countless communities across the country, drug users are being rehabilitated. We know feeding pre-school age children works. We know that education and health care make a difference. We as educated members of society need to challenge indifference, the poison of racism, and the devastation of poverty. We have a unique opportunity to refocus our society on these issues. We need to insist on meaningful dialogue on the important issues relating to poverty and its effects. We need to challenge prosecutors, judges and legislators to find new solutions. We need to challenge ourselves.

Works Cited

Davis, A. Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire, New York City: Seven Stories Press, 2005.

De Koster, K. and L. Bruno, Poverty; Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1994.

Krugman, Paul, and Robin Wells. Macroeconomics. 2. New York City: Worth Publishers, 2009.

Macionis, John J., Sociology, Tenth Edition, Prentice Hall, Inc.; New Jersey, 2005.

Steensland, Brian (2007). The failed welfare revolution. Princeton University Press.