In the reading The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All, I have learned that basically the society’s dirty work will always be done. In this reading Herbert Gans gave 12 reasons for the functions of poverty, some were good, and some were also not so important. So, as I begin this response I will discuss the ones I felt strongly about, and the ones I particularly did not like. In this reading Gans says that: “the existence of poverty ensures that society’s “dirty work” will be done. Every society has such work: physically dirty or dangerous, temporary, dead-end and unpaid, undignified, and menial jobs” (91). In saying this in his first example of how poverty functions Gans is simply saying that people will always look for work no matter how demeaning
