Chloe Sheffer
4/23/12
In the United States, homelessness is one of the few very visible signs of poverty. Homelessness, and the necessity to remove its presence from the streets and into housing illustrates the increasing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. since the 1980s. Another classification in the U.S. is the “underclass”, which takes up about 10% of America’s poor population, but is definitely the most studied of them all. The “underclass” often clashes with public institutions, such as jails, rehabs, etc.
The global economy regards the poor in two ways. One perspective views the poor as completely irrelevant to the global economy, and they are therefore viewed as invisible; the poor are no longer needed for manual labor in such large numbers, so the government cuts funding on public services and essentially abandons poor populations. Another perspective views the exportation of labor as essential to the global economy, because they are forced to take lower wages and increase profits, therefore raising the status of the middle class.
A society’s definition of the labor force is fluid; women, children, and the elderly have been omitted and added to the idea of the workforce. Also, changes in prison, military recruitment, and other institutions have changed the labor force. We can also think of changes in the global economy from other perspectives; deindustrialization can also be viewed as a chance for field workers to work in the labor force. “Fordism” was built around nuclear families, stability, and unions. However, as the labor force standard changed based on race, gender, etc., unions that were based on segregation were weakened.
Migrants without access to capital create poor communities (for example, new Asian immigrants) where they fill low-paid employment, avoid public assistance, and live largely by the “Protestant” work ethic. Also, the addition of women to the service force reduced the control, security, and benefits in the workforce. In the U.S., the core of the workforce is now the low-paid, non-unionized, single, and subordinate (by gender, minority, and immigrant status).
Public and commercial spaces like malls are used to seclude poor neighborhoods and separate them from middle- or upper-class neighborhoods. Building of expressways and suburban rezoning are methods to isolate the poor. Also, urban renewal and gentrification have pushed the poor out of their neighborhoods. In all of these ways, the poor have become marginalized and essentially invisible. Homelessness, however, is an entirely visible form of poverty. Homeless people live on the street, beach, or any public space. They often will encroach upon the spaces of middle- and upper- class people, increasing their visibility. Poor people are also left out of “cyberspace” due to limited access to computers and internet.
Poor people are forever at the mercy of the Bureaucracy when it comes to time; they are always expected to be on time, but must patiently wait in return. Homeless people rely on the work schedules of employees in shelters and soup kitchens in order to survive, and also must be prepared to take an opportunity at any given moment.
Employment, public assistance, social security, and credit is different for men and women, and because of this, being poor or homeless is not the same for men and women. Women often have an easier time with housing assistance, whereas men often have an easier time finding job training. Men were increasingly being incarcerated or killed, and leaving more poor women as single mothers, who made less money than men (feminization of poverty). The two are interconnected. Poverty, gender, and race all interplay. Poor women of many races find the idea of success in becoming a mother, where many poor men become involved in the drug trade in order to earn money to support their families, despite their race. The urban poor and homeless are often moving, whether it is across the nation, between nations, or just through one urban area.
