Alice Goffman On The Run Analysis

One day Alice Goffman receives a letter from an undergrad at Temple University describing how difficult the job market is for them. Goffman then thinks about if middle class students are having a hard time finding a job in 2015, then those with no college education/degree may also be suffering financially in the working class. Another negative aspect of society Goffman focuses on that follows her train of thought with economic inequality/hardship, is the current state of mass incarceration, which has increased, not decreased since her book On The Run was released. Internalizing about society as a whole and how marginalized groups within it have been taking steps forward that have been met with several push backs, she decides to lay down from …show more content…
Surely in “the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat” (Marx 21), this is the uncovered bold solution Goffman receives. In order to stop oppression, the few oppressing others (few in amount, large in political and economic power) and their oppressive institutions must be abolished. They only understand violence, and any method of taking back rights that were forcibly taken, will not be obtained through asking. Violence used on each end, both by the poor and the rich, is inevitable. Marx stresses that the “first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to establish democracy” (30). Marx continues on stating several points, “that the idea of inheriting wealth must be done away with, that a heavy progressive income tax must exist, that society has to be more equal in the sense that more people on an individual level have power, and when put together, should formulate plans that express a socialist democracy without a capitalist system existing. Finally equality and fairness is put forth above all