Classism And Poverty

Improved Essays
Poverty can be found everywhere in the world and it comes from the persistent inequality that can be found in all institutions governing our lives. Classism is a large cause of poverty people are judged based on their given social class and are refused opportunities and privileges that allow them to better themselves and climb their way out of poverty. Individuals are judged based on their tastes and appearance and inability to adhere to middle-class social norms. The media bombards people with the false idea that the lower class are really just lazy and lack work ethic, that they are a drain on society. A huge contributor to classism is greed the wealthy and powerful wish to stay the same or expand on what they already have which leads to …show more content…
Many people view them as leeches taking and giving nothing back they don’t consider the hardships and shame that people on welfare are exposed to. People who are considered middle or higher class tend to avoid areas with subsidized housing or places that are considered to be “ghetto” as they are taught that lower classes are violent and in order to distance themselves from being harmed they must not socialize with those of a lower class.(cite) This deeply embedded fear and distrust of lower classes leads to policies that are more harmful than effective. Much needed programs are often cut in communities that desperately need them because people believe that having access to free resources or receiving welfare is essentially being given free money for no work or effort. Convincing the general public that the lower class is merely lazy gives the government a scapegoat for their failures. If you convince people to blame the poor for being poor then you never have to look or treat the underlying issues.
Classism is a large contributor to poverty. Lower classes are not afforded the same privileges as others, their schools aren’t as well-funded and many can’t afford higher education, they are discriminated against merely for how they look and talk, they aren’t given job interviews based on differences of tastes and opinions, and they are constantly degraded and told that their place in life is their own fault. Eradicating Classism isn’t possible unless the attitudes of people change, society must stop being scared of the less fortunate and look beyond superficial

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    They lose power to vote, hold positions in office, or they don’t care to vote because they know their voice won’t be heard. Lastly, he looks at the concept of macrosocial functions and how poor people are not treated for their medical illnesses. Gans calls this the “extermination of the surplus’. He feels that they are not being helped because the better-off people just don’t care for them and don’t value them the same. In the end the author feels that it is unfair to stereotype people in depraved situations as lazy, criminals, or underserving of the same rights as everyone else.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oppression of the poor Imagine being stereotyped as somebody who commits crimes, does drugs, and produces no good into society. This is what the American people think of the poor just because of the limited resources they have. People define the poor as lacking money to sustain an average standard of living. Americans feel like they can blame all of the problems on the poor because they see them as inferior. American people oppress the poor because they see them as unsophisticated, indolent, and deficient people who create harm to society.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Media, which has a large influence on how we view issues, likes to portray people in poverty as lazy, drunk, or always making bad choices. It is common belief in the U.S. that people in poverty are that way because of their bad choices, or their lack of effort. Thinking ethnocentrically like this can cause individuals to not see how hard our society makes it for lower class individuals to thrive. My friends family can’t get a higher paying job because they don’t have the education. They don’t have the education because they don’t have enough money to pay for it.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The extreme inequality is already contributing to social polarization, which causes the poor to be less happy and leads to social turbulence. According to Oishi, Kesebir & Diener (2011, p.1099), Americans who earn less money will feel unhappy with the expansion of the income gap due to unjust treatment and lack of trust. As the gap between wealthy and poor increase, the poor feel like they are victims of social injustice. Therefore, they cannot easily trust others and feel unhappy. Moreover, in “For Richer, for Poorer” (2012, p.4), the author states the inequality hinders the poor to get the chance of education, triggers a hatred for the rich, and is a threat to the development of the society.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Causes Of Poverty

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Most of these women feel degraded by the system, and reported resenting the public views that they are lazy or avoid work because they struggle to pay bills while raising a family. Because of these obscene views, global poverty can be rightfully deemed the greatest social injustice. Many poor people however, distrust the government programs designed to help them. This belief is rooted in the fact that government aid is not too effective nor efficient. “There is little evidence to suggest that…

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Education Vs Ghetto Essay

    • 1010 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Where as the poor, the under privileged and unfortunate, are perceived to be ill educated, ill-mannered and riddled with delinquency. The stereotypes as we all know are far from truth. We can never see the rich’s struggles. Many times we believe that life is handed to them with utter ease. The rich will never understand the struggles the poor many are faced with in the ghetto.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Racism And Discrimination

    • 1928 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Racism has turned our society into one full of hate and discrimination based of skin color and cultural beliefs. Unfortunately, discrimination has done more than just separate individuals socially it has also divided them into high and low economic classes. We have created a society in which people who are born into lower classes are unable to climb the social ladder and reach an elite economic status. Our society has made it almost impossible for those who are not in power to ever reach such a position. We have created a society in which those who are suffering will continue to suffer and be looked at as a having no value or ability to contribute to the success of the economy and structure of society.…

    • 1928 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Society has learned to hate those in need, because the wealthy tell them time after time, that poor people are less worthy than those with money in their pockets. It is the fortunate people of this world that keep the poor people poor, by strengthening the welfare state, raising the minimum wage, and moving jobs overseas,…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Conflict theory is the limitations to social instructions and resources to maintain social order by showing power and dominance. Poverty communities get the left overs of society, they tend to have limited resources, limited accesses to proper education or higher up education and many other social institutions that forbid them from excelling. For example, by lacking in education they are unable to get a high paying job thus they can’t make ends meet and become either dependent on welfare or homeless. Thus society likes to trap people into falling into the poverty system and never getting out because society refused to help the poor instead we give false hops and fabricated ideas to make them think we are helping them but in reality they just continue a continuous cycle. A radicalistic person will believe that to prevent inequality we need to change society completely.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Socs Vs Greasers Analysis

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There is clear evidence that the Socs have it worse than the Greasers because they are exposed to violence and are not given any boundaries to their games. Some may say that the poor kids struggle more because they have to learn to make a living for themselves and become more independent; on the other hand some people may say that the rich kids struggle more because they have very little parental support and are pushed to do better. Because of the lack of restraint and lack of discipline the Socs try their hardest to get their parents attentions to notice them and finally give them some sort of limit or boundary. The Socs tend to act the way that they do because they don’t want their real personalities to show and yet they want someone else to really see what they are feeling.“Socs were always behind a wall of aloofness,careful not to let their real selves show though”.This shows the struggles of the rich kids because they…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays