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__
/ e8 j' W( X1 F# c; N2 V$ g come in the United States will inevitably be opposed by powerful middle and upper
& i; {& m4 }) s class interests. People can be relatively rich only if you are relatively poor, and as __2__
9 x+ q: g) j1 M& ^$ [6 f power is mainly in the hands of the rich, public policies reflect their interests than __3__
G" D& a( m( w those of the poor.As Mr. Herbert Gans has pointed out, poverty is actually functional from the
# q5 E' J9 Y% ^3 X point of view of the nonpoor. Poverty ensures that dirty work gets doing. If there __4__
9 f: G# \! I$ n5 g6 H- | were no poor poeple to scrub floors and empty bedpans, there jobs will have to be __5__# j, y* f5 ?! H: N8 `
rewarded with high incomes before anyone would touch them. Poverty creates jobs1 Z0 y2 q4 U: i# C
for many of the nonpoor, such as police officers, welfare workers, and government1 a4 N+ p, z9 @! ?0 e/ W
bureaucrats. Poverty makes life easier for the rich by providing them with cookers, __6__
9 j) ^4 P8 f! c gardeners, and other workers to perform basic chores when their employers enjoy __7__- G2 ^4 i# `4 _9 f
more pleasurable activities. Poverty provides a market for more inferior goods and __8__
+ K% p7 W q- b% r( J3 j y; w2 m service, such as dayold bread, rundown automobiles, or the advice of competent __9__
8 S# T* X B7 p9 o0 C physicians and lawyers. Poverty also provides a group that can be made to absorb5 b: U" i* b( \
the costs of change. It is just that poverty is an inevitable outcome of the American
- e+ X$ B8 p; i7 y% A/ h n; {9 b# B economic system, in which the poor are politically powerless to influence or change. __10__ |