There is heated debate over the cause of poverty: Do economic and social forces make people poor? Or are the poor themselves to blame – due to things like laziness, wasteful spending, and bad decisions?
This video has five parts (keep reading for more detail, or just watch the video!).
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Part 1: Discusses the “culture of poverty” (or the “subculture of poverty” as it was originally called by anthropologist Oscar Lewis), the theory that the poor have various dysfunctional traits which play a significant part in causing intergenerational cycles of poverty. But to what extent is “the culture of poverty” an effect of poverty rather than a cause?
Part 2: Looks at how common (or uncommon) the culture of poverty is among the poor.
Part 3: Tackles the question of whether the non-employed poor are lazy / lacking in work ethic.
Part 4: The media likes to popularize true stories of people who overcome incredible obstacles to escape poverty. But these stories are held up not simply as inspirational examples, but to promote the idea that with enough hard work and determination, anyone can escape poverty, and therefore those who don’t have only themselves to blame. Part 4 challenges this notion.
Part 5: When people make the case for why poor people don’t deserve to be poor, we often focus on trying to show that the poor are every bit as hard working and conventional in their values as the middle class – just as I’ve tried to do in this video. In Part 5, I talk about why this is the wrong focus for the argument.
Leave me a comment telling me your thoughts on this video. Constructive criticism is welcome.
0:00 Intro
1:29 The culture of poverty
6:47 How common is the culture of poverty among the poor?
7:41 Are people on welfare lazy?
10:47 Exceptions are exceptional
12:34 Nobody deserves poverty
14:42 Outro
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Sources
INTRO
Margaret Thatcher's Interview, Catholic Herald, 1978
Ben Shapiro video
PART 1
Nicolas Duvoux, The Culture of Poverty Reconsidered
Culture of Poverty
Small, Harding & Lamont: Reconsidering Culture & Poverty
Susan M. Rigdon, The Culture Façade: Art, Science & Politics in the Work of Oscar Lewis, University of Illinois Press, p155
Richard Florida, The Enduring Effect of Neighborhoods
Elliot Liebow, Tally’s Corner, Rowman & Littlefield
Stephen Steinberg, “The Culture of Poverty Reconsidered”, chapter 4 of The Ethnic Myth, Random House Inc.
PART 2
Quote on page 25: Oscar Lewis, The Culture of Poverty, Scientific American, 1966 (1966).pdf
Elliot Liebow, Tally’s Corner, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
PART 3
Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, Penguin Books;
Sudhir Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Harvard University Press
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Photo of guy holding “I need a job” sign is from Freepik.com
Music Credits (most in public domain, those that aren't are fair use)
• Salute to Mexico (United States Marine Band)
• Tipsy (NyannersVA’s cover J-Kw on's original)
• Scratch the Itch (Quincas Moreira)
• TipToes (Myuu)
• Smoove Weekend (TW$)
• Sound Off Alert March (United States Marine Band)
• Hell To Da Naw,Naw,Naw With Da Bicycle (Bishop Bullwinkle)
• Piano Sonata Number 11 in A, 3rd movement (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
• Wu Tang Clan Type beat instrumental (TW$)
• Sunrise Drive (South London HiFi)
• Spanish Winter (The Passion HiFi)
• Symphony Number 5 (Ludwig van Beethoven)
• Connection (Wayne Jones)