BLAMING THE POOR: Poverty as Punishment | [Radical Responsibility]
Channel: LuckyBlackCat
Date: 2020-04-04

There is heated debate over the cause of poverty: Do economic and social forces make people poor? Or are the poor themselves to blame – due to things like laziness, wasteful spending, and bad decisions? 

This video has five parts (keep reading for more detail, or just watch the video!). 
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Part 1: Discusses the “culture of poverty” (or the “subculture of poverty” as it was originally called by anthropologist Oscar Lewis), the theory that the poor have various dysfunctional traits which play a significant part in causing intergenerational cycles of poverty. But to what extent is “the culture of poverty” an effect of poverty rather than a cause? 

Part 2: Looks at how common (or uncommon) the culture of poverty is among the poor. 

Part 3: Tackles the question of whether the non-employed poor are lazy / lacking in work ethic.

Part 4: The media likes to popularize true stories of people who overcome incredible obstacles to escape poverty. But these stories are held up not simply as inspirational examples, but to promote the idea that with enough hard work and determination, anyone can escape poverty, and therefore those who don’t have only themselves to blame. Part 4 challenges this notion.

Part 5: When people make the case for why poor people don’t deserve to be poor, we often focus on trying to show that the poor are every bit as hard working and conventional in their values as the middle class – just as I’ve tried to do in this video. In Part 5, I talk about why this is the wrong focus for the argument.  

Leave me a comment telling me your thoughts on this video. Constructive criticism is welcome. 

0:00 Intro
1:29 The culture of poverty
6:47 How common is the culture of poverty among the poor?
7:41 Are people on welfare lazy?
10:47 Exceptions are exceptional
12:34 Nobody deserves poverty
14:42 Outro

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Say hi to me on twitter: https://twitter.com/1luckyblackcat 
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Check out my other videos: 

Breaking the Wheel? - Game of Thrones and Alternatives to Capitalism https://youtu.be/FCW7EzlIZk0 

Satisfying Answers on Socialism: An Open Letter to Destiny https://youtu.be/lyepf912aIg 

Where’s the Proof of Racism? https://youtu.be/OnKUVY4sQ0g 

The Seductive Power of the Right-wing Fantasy: Can We Break the Spell? | [Radical Responsibility] https://youtu.be/CQujPLjtUdU

Ben Shapiro | URGENT Message to Leftists https://youtu.be/dV88BlZ_eas
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Sources

INTRO
Margaret Thatcher's Interview, Catholic Herald, 1978 https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103793

Ben Shapiro video https://youtu.be/H7nbnhzae1o 

PART 1

Nicolas Duvoux, The Culture of Poverty Reconsidered https://booksandideas.net/The-Culture-of-Poverty.html 

Culture of Poverty https://bit.ly/37sCqG8

Small, Harding & Lamont: Reconsidering Culture & Poverty https://bit.ly/3oZwhXU 

Susan M. Rigdon, The Culture Façade: Art, Science & Politics in the Work of Oscar Lewis, University of Illinois Press, p155

Richard Florida, The Enduring Effect of Neighborhoods https://bit.ly/38jSQjw

Elliot Liebow, Tally’s Corner, Rowman & Littlefield

Stephen Steinberg, “The Culture of Poverty Reconsidered”, chapter 4 of The Ethnic Myth, Random House Inc.

PART 2

Quote on page 25: Oscar Lewis, The Culture of Poverty, Scientific American, 1966 https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~gwallace/Papers/Lewis%20(1966).pdf 

Elliot Liebow, Tally’s Corner, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

PART 3

Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, Penguin Books;

Sudhir Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Harvard University Press
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Photo of guy holding “I need a job” sign is from Freepik.com 

Music Credits (most in public domain, those that aren't are fair use)

• Salute to Mexico (United States Marine Band)
• Tipsy (NyannersVA’s cover J-Kw on's original)
• Scratch the Itch (Quincas Moreira)
• TipToes (Myuu)
• Smoove Weekend (TW$)
• Sound Off Alert March (United States Marine Band) 
• Hell To Da Naw,Naw,Naw With Da Bicycle (Bishop Bullwinkle)
• Piano Sonata Number 11 in A, 3rd movement (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
• Wu Tang Clan Type beat instrumental (TW$)
• Sunrise Drive (South London HiFi)
• Spanish Winter (The Passion HiFi) https://thepassionhifi.com
• Symphony Number 5 (Ludwig van Beethoven)
• Connection (Wayne Jones)