Poverty exists because our society is an unequal one, and there are powerfulpolitical pressures to keep it that way. Any attempt to redistributing wealth and in __1__
( A1 w# Q) l6 N/ G come in the United States will inevitably be opposed by powerful middle and upper
0 E) \% J/ T1 K0 e class interests. People can be relatively rich only if you are relatively poor, and as __2__
" Z, J7 u- e" j6 R3 T. c' L! { power is mainly in the hands of the rich, public policies reflect their interests than __3__
& _# [9 W. E& t3 g those of the poor.As Mr. Herbert Gans has pointed out, poverty is actually functional from the
# _4 H' e1 Z% a5 n/ p% m- d point of view of the nonpoor. Poverty ensures that dirty work gets doing. If there __4__
) H1 _% X P- e were no poor poeple to scrub floors and empty bedpans, there jobs will have to be __5__
# C; T6 H4 P$ ? M w( t rewarded with high incomes before anyone would touch them. Poverty creates jobs4 S& X* C ?3 \2 L8 y' h$ ^0 ]+ S
for many of the nonpoor, such as police officers, welfare workers, and government9 c* r% l4 T9 e- V
bureaucrats. Poverty makes life easier for the rich by providing them with cookers, __6__( ^0 r1 v0 ~! [
gardeners, and other workers to perform basic chores when their employers enjoy __7__
3 ^8 c% V5 F4 ?# e. K more pleasurable activities. Poverty provides a market for more inferior goods and __8__! F* q/ H# ?9 H, V3 r2 ^
service, such as dayold bread, rundown automobiles, or the advice of competent __9__# G! ]6 q) @2 Y% O% f
physicians and lawyers. Poverty also provides a group that can be made to absorb
' Q `' E6 S& T6 L9 G the costs of change. It is just that poverty is an inevitable outcome of the American
7 N4 n) i& X4 G$ @* {' z3 P economic system, in which the poor are politically powerless to influence or change. __10__ |