The Culture Of Poverty Ehrenreich Analysis

John Winthrop stated, “We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us,” in hopes of creating the fundamental standards of a nation that stands for righteous living, and one that values the troubles of their citizens.With this in mind, the thought of thousands living in poverty with little to no government assistance is quite astonishing. Barbara Ehrenreich, a widely read author, addressed in her entry “How We Cured ‘The Culture of Poverty,’ Not Poverty Itself,” that public policies were being created to “cure, not poverty, but the 'culture of poverty’” (Ehrenreich 17). Ehrenreich argues that policy makers tend to unknowingly stereotype the poor, assuming that poverty is caused by nothing more than “bad attitudes and faulty …show more content…
As of today, lawmakers are considering drug-testing and fingerprinting all who apply for government assistance, stereotyping the poor who are prone to having addictions and criminal backgrounds. TANF recipients are given guidance on how to improve their attitudes and character defects. As part of that guidance, a bill was brought to light during former President Bill Clinton’s term, that would provide chastity training for single mothers to reduce the amount of children being born into families that were not financially stable. Ultimately hoping to reduce the amount of needy families seeking government assistance in the future. To add to the reduction of welfare recipients, stricter regulations were set in place, the PRWORA being one of …show more content…
The act also strictly limited women’s opportunities to continue to further their education while receiving government assistance. Many of which knew the only way to get out of welfare and support their children was to pursue a higher education. Vivyan Adair, a single mother and welfare recipient during 1987 earned her PhD and is now employed stated, “I was able to transform my life and that of my child through the life-altering pathway of higher education” (Adair 27). It is estimated that over 93% of women were forced to drop out and work full-time to support their children. A student affected by this act stated “It came down to, if I want to keep this job at [the fast-food restaurant] I have to leave my three-year old daughter alone or maybe with a senile neighbor. And I couldn’t even really afford that! Or we could go back to her dad who is a drunk. If I don’t do that, we could both end up hungry or homeless. The choice they are making me make is to either abandon or hurt my daughter, and for what?” (Second student 30). The PRWORA’s purpose was get get families off of welfare, by encouraging to go out and work, assuming those on welfare are lazy and don’t work.