Why Is It Better To Work With The Poor

The poor have a feeling of transparency in the world. They can clearly see others that are better economically than they are but those people can’t see the poor very well. The poor also end up being hidden and disguising themselves as members of more comfortable classes thanks to cheap products made by corporate giants like Wal-mart. Poor people are unable to be seen by those of higher economic status because of work place locations and economies of scale. Work places separate the poor from people of higher economic status. The poor usually have to work in multiple restaurants making low amounts of money close to minimum wage. Those of higher class usually work in an office environment. Many people of higher class will never work with poor people and therefore never see what they are living through. Unless upper class people work first-hand alongside the poor, they will never see how the poor truly live. Barbara Ehrenreich “worked undercover as a server, maid, and salesclerk” to see how the other side lives (394). She had to put herself into a position where she could experience how the poor have to work to survive. Most upper class people would never do what she did and therefore never see the poor. …show more content…
They wear clothes and buy food and don’t look like they are struggling to survive. This is because of economies of scale. Something handmade that takes tens of hours to create will be very expensive. However, something standardized and mass produced by machines will cost much less. Corporate giants like Wal-Mart take advantage of economies of scale by producing clothes and products on huge scales, which lower the prices of those products. They can sell products for cheap because they have cheap input prices and production costs. This sets up the illusion that the poor are actually well off when in reality most of them struggle on a daily