Why Do We Hate the Poor?

No, really, we can't stand poor people.

We pass by them on downtown street corners as if they weren't really there. We price them out of our "new" neighborhoods--also known as their "old" neighborhoods--with little remorse. We don't drive or ride public transportation through poor parts of town. We shun stores when too many poor folks start shopping there. In other words, we don't want to talk with them, live with them, travel with them or even shop with them.

We often ignore the poor. Think of all the talk you've heard about poverty during this year's historic presidential campaign. Think hard.

Can't remember any substantive debate on the topic? That's because it didn't happen, which is ironic considering the campaign's emphasis on our nation's economic crisis.

Amid all of the talk about bailouts, stimulus packages and mortgage relief plans, nobody is talking about the folks in need of an economic lifeline more than any of us. During the four presidential and vice-presidential debates this year--where, in all, more than 60,000 words were spoken--the word "poverty" was never mentioned. The words "low income" and "the poor" were each mentioned just once--but not in a direct question or response about poor people.

However, the "middle class"--the darling segment of America in this year's campaign--was mentioned 28 times during the debates. "Main Street"--a veiled reference to the middle class--was mentioned an additional nine times.

Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden described the middle class as America's economic engine and talked about how we needed to get the middle class "back on track." Gov. Sarah Palin identified herself as a "Mainstreeter" and said her family was among America's middle class. Sen. John McCain fell in love with Joe the Plumber and proclaimed that we were all like Joe.

But no one has stood up so prominently for the millions of Americans who would gladly switch places with Joe.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 38 million Americans living in poverty in 2007. If America's poor all lived in one state, that poor state would be the nation's largest. California's estimated population in 2007 was about 36.6 million. I can't imagine a presidential campaign that didn't make a stop in California. So why has this campaign never visited Skid Row? If we can talk about helping the middle-class in these tough economic times, why can't we talk about helping the poor?

Apparently, talking about helping the poor has become some kind of political kiss of death evidenced by the monumental policy shifts in social programs the past dozen years or so, counting everything from the reform of welfare to the demolition of public housing.

It seems that our "War on Poverty" has become a war on the poor.

It should be noted that this year's presidential campaign has focused on providing health care, tax relief and more jobs--things that would certainly help the poor. But no one dared to utter a direct call to aid America's poorest citizens the way we've heard that call for the middle class.

Poor people aren't poor simply because they don't try hard enough. And middle-class folks aren't struggling right now just because the economy tanked. If the poor can be held accountable for their economic situation, so should the middle class. And if America is a better place with a strong middle class, it would be an even better place if the poor were able to join the ranks of the middle class.

Skills, circumstances and opportunities are often the difference between the poor, the working class and the middle class--not desire and effort.

Just 65 percent of impoverished adults at least 25 years old had high school diplomas in 2007; compared to 87 percent of their counterparts above the poverty line. While middle-class America is feeling the pinch from the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost, the unemployment rate of impoverished Americans was nearly 24 percent in 2007--nearly four times the rate for the rest of Americans.

Anyone who believes the poor don't try hard enough hasn't seen the guys on Chicago street corners in sub-zero weather selling everything from Streetwise to socks to dashboard ornaments. They haven't talked to ex-felons who've filled out more than 40 job applications--and keep going despite receiving rejection after rejection. Single moms raising a family on a minimum wage-income may be the hardest-working people in America--but no one ever talks about them that way.

I don't think it's the poor who've given up on making a better life for themselves. I think it's that the rest of us have given up on the poor.

Comments

[Social Construct]

It's not that the poor are hated but that "American Dream" inspired culture of self reliance has created a primal fear of the poor. Hate is directly correlated to the instinct of fear. Deep within us is a realization that we are no different from those less fortunate other than "fortune". A simple quirk of fate is all it takes for most to find themselves on the have-not side of society.
Not that hard work is not a factor but we all realize, whether admitted or not, there are millions of hard working poor people that will never realize the American Dream. Also, in our zero sum game of economics, those that make the rules provide failsafes to insure against losing status and influence that wealth brings. American fear of "sharing the wealth" has created a barrier of the poor gaining access to competition on a fair playing field with those afraid of losing. If you want to be President, you need the assistance of the paranoid powerful.
We despise the less fortunate because it terrifies the hell out of us to introspectively realize there is no real difference between us all.

[GregJL]

I will say though it IS interesting that it was not really a topic of discussion, considering that Barack Obama's site has an extensive plan for combating poverty, while John McCain's site has absolutely no mention of it at all. you would think Obama would have beat McCain over the head with it as much as he could. "Oh John, so the government should provide NO support for the poor?" I think Obama did hit him a couple times with the fact that McCain voted over and over again against increasing the minimum wage. I think Obama has also publicly stated the need for LIVING wages a few times.

I have no fear President Obama will listen when it comes time to discuss the tide that needs to lift all boats, whether dinghies, fishing boats, or yachts.

[GregJL]

"Poor people aren't poor simply because they don't try hard enough."

if this is not so, what you should be stating is the reason poor people are poor, not negating the vew that conservatives hold. It simply reinforces the opinion that the poor are poor because they're lazy.

And Sir681, the dominant aspect of this country is a progressive value of empathy That traditional American value has been hidden by the constant screaming of selfish conservatives that "you are on your own" for the last 40 years. Liberals have been too busy trying to show empathy by lifting up this group or that to realize they have been playing right into conservative hands, aiding in the divisiveness, instead of emphasizing how much alike we all are.

[PaulWisconsin]

I think a big part of this also has to do with the free market, unregulated economic system the republicans have had a big hand in creating. It seems to have taught a "dog eat dog" mentality under the guise of the "American Dream".

Under this American Dream those who are finically wealthy feel as though it gives them the right to judge others, and walk over their fellow man instead helping them, and has created the mindset that if you are poor it is somehow your fault.

It is very easy to be this out of touch with the reality of the situation when you have never experienced it first hand.

The thing that is most disturbing is the rhetoric we now hear that helping your fellow man or woman is "socialism" instead of what it truly is¦ being human. A government shouldn"t need to attempt to regulate common decency, and compassion. This should be an inherent trait of people who consider themselves part of the greatest nation in world.

We think too highly of ourselves as a nation, in the fact that we are out in the middle-east trying to "improve" democracy for the rest of the world when we can"t even better ourselves at home.

I think we need to re-evaluate our priorities and address issues at home before we venture out into the world attempting to show others how enlightened we are as a country.

[davidly]

You said it, Mr. Loury. Every time I read the "progressive" blog post-debate headlines stating that McCain had failed yet again to mention the middle class, I thought, well, you know.

Political blogs aren't exactly the place where you find a lot of speaking out on behalf of the poor. I think the level of poverty in a state, nation, or world speaks to the level of poverty in the collective soul of the same.

It's instructive that the Democratic middle class believe pretty strongly in trickle-down economics as long as it begins with them.

[Sir681]

We despise the poor in this country because of the dominant aspect of our culture that is every man for himself and the devil takes the hindmost. Then add to that one of national pastimes of demonization, which under the Reagan administration, the poor was one of the unfortunate targets. So that mentality is still thriving today, whereby the poor is seen as lazy and just sucking off welfare, and that no way in the world should our tax dollars go towards helping those kinds of people.

What is so hypocritical of this view is that it is largely espoused by people who go to church regularly and call themselves "Christians." The main reason I chose no longer to attend church is the glaring hypocrisy I observe, quite contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life was dedicated to the poor.

Don't forget the other reason the poor is generally ignored by politicians, and that is there isn't much pilitical milage to be gained from it.

It's no wonder we have one of the highest (if not the highest) rates of poverty in the industrialized world.