It was pretty interesting/scary to read about the tenements in Five Points. Interesting because I never realized how horrible the conditions actually were for residents living there, and scary because it made me wonder about the world outside of my rural/suburban neighborhood. Back then, the upper classes would go visit these slums as a form of entertainment. Like other people have mentioned, this is pretty sad, as we see no humanity in their actions. However as ToniAnn said, it probably was hard for the richer people to understand what the poor were going through. Furthermore besides donations here and there, they really couldn’t have changed the whole system of tenements; government intervention would have probably been required. It’s similar to today because individual people can donate to different charities helping the poor but a bigger solution is required. Additionally people in today’s world go to different third world countries just to look at how the inhabitants live. However just because they are in a different country doesn’t mean its just to study their poor living conditions. We see this practice is pretty common for tourists but then again what can they really do to help them? Nothing really, but it still doesn’t justify their fascination with the situation.
Calling the conditions of the tenements disgusting would be euphemizing the reality; they were not disgusting but inhumane. I don’t understand how it was legal for them to even live there! Like Rebecca mentioned, if they found it unfit for prisoners to live there how did they think that these workers were living? I guess it’s just that people tried to ignore certain issues such as the disturbing conditions of the tenements so they didn’t feel bad about not doing anything. Again we still see this today. Like all others, I too often forget the privileges I have not only living in this country but also at this time in history.
Also each political system has its own flaws as Liz points out and no system is perfect. However, in capitalism selfishness and greed become a major factor as people become obsessed with power. However it would be wrong to say people are inherently bad, it’s just that sometimes we forget to look at the more important issues in life while focusing on meaningless ones. This becomes a huge problem but is easily solved by education and awareness.
The tenements in Five Points were a place where people living in America probably cant even dream of. We shouldn’t be quick to overlook what new immigrants had to go through so their future generations would have a safe and secure place to live. We also shouldn’t overlook what underprivileged people around the world are going through as we write these blogs at this very moment.
