Friday Late Night Open Thread
2 hours ago
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Poverty pervades the suburbs
Poverty in America is not in the inner cities, nor is it the rural parts of America; it is in the suburbs of America. A staggering 15.4 million people living in the suburbs lived below the poverty line according to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census data. The analysis also showed that the people living below the poverty line rose 11.5% from last year. As the economic status of America and the job situation continues, more people are losing their jobs and becoming poorer and poorer. The burst of the housing bubble also contributed to the poverty in the suburbs. The suburban poor are not just the minimum wage earners, but the middle class who lost their jobs in the Great Recession. As there are services to help the impoverish, but they do little good in the suburbs as they are not used to the number of people living below the poverty line. Another reason why these services do little good is that some people do not have the knowledge of where to go for help and some people are ashamed to ask for government assistance for fear of being precieved as poor. Many people donate to charities and organizations that help the poor in the inner cities and rural areas, they don't however, realize that people are living below the poverty line in the suburbs.
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2 comments:
The Recession seemed to shock the middle class, with all the sudden lay-offs from companies. The middle class suburbans were not prepared for losing their jobs and not being able to find new ones. After having above average incomes, it is not surprising that they would not want to settle for less. There is an understandable hint of shame that they might feel with taking a lower-paying job. It's hard to settle for less. It's a dramatic change for suburbians, having to eat out less, or indulge less in luxuries. It's an adjustment no one was prepared for. Also, the word "suburb" itself has its own connotation to it. Most will think of it as a more well-to-do area consisting of middle-class families that wouldn't need any charity. If a person had the choice to provide for someone in the suburbs or someone in the inner cities, who would they choose? Inner cities just sounds like it would need more help right? You wouldn't think to donate to the suburbs. It's sad to think that people are not getting the assistance they need due to the stereotypes of suburbia.
Kirsten raises a great point concerning the assumptions made about suburbia. Based on these stereotypes, people might fail not only to perceive the absolute deprivation but also to recognize the relative deprivation aspect and its profound impacts on those living below the poverty line in these areas. When Alex mentioned the impoverished middle class being "ashamed to ask for government assistance for fear of being perceived as poor," this immediately reminded me of behavioral economics and the "keeping up with the Jones'" effect. It also illustrates the competitiveness of the middle class and those constituents' desire to ascend the social ranks wtihin that class. If these people were better informed about the lack of social mobility currently present in the U.S., they might be less focused on their social status and more concerned (and humble) about their abased economic condition, allowing these services, which Alex mentioned, to have more significant effects.
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