One application of the functionalist approach to the phenomenon of poverty allows us to draw general lessons. Gans has reflected at some length on the functions of poverty, taking up Merton s point that items which are functional for some sub-groups in society may be dysfunctional for others. Society, he argues, is so preoccupied outwardly with the costs of poverty that it fails to identify the corresponding benefits, or rather, the groups or values who benefit.
Poverty helps to ensure that dirty, dangerous, menial and undignified work gets done.
The poor help to provide emotional satisfaction, evoking compassion, pity and charity, so that the affluent may feel righteous. The poor offer affluent people vicarious participation in sexual, alcoholic and narcotic behaviour. Poverty helps to guarantee the status of the non-poor. The poor assist in the upward mobility of the non-poor. The poor perform cultural functions, like providing labour for Egyptian pyramids, Greek temples and medieval churches.