The problem of the poor has been with us since the beginning of this country. For much of America's history, the leaders of this nation, as well as our monied class, have conducted unending hostilities against those who are economically disadvantaged.
Herbert J. Gans, a Columbia University sociology professor, addresses this horrible problem in his new book, The War Against the Poor (Basic Books, $22). He accuses the rich of gathering an array of weapons in their outrageous efforts to further deprive those who are least to resist.
These weapons, Gans says, include "withholding opportunities for decent jobs, schools, housing, and the necessities required for a modest version of the American way of life." This shameful war has accelerated since the '80s and he sees it continuing to worsen.
Promises to "end welfare as we know it," helped elect Bill Clinton in 1992 and no one expects politicians to slow their vindictive actions against the poor.
Already newspapers, particularly the leftist press, have observed that the old battle strategies haven't changed, just become more hateful. With the steady decline of the formerly insulated middle class, these are insane times where job increases cause the Wall Street brokers to panic and the Dow Jones average to plummet. We can hardly begin to imagine how grim the future could be.
If the present trend isn't slowed, there soon could be only two classes in America: the very rich and the poor. Them that have will accumlate more riches, while the rest of us scurry to feed our children and find adequate housing.
A major part of this war, in the eyes of Gans, comes from employing words that "sterotype, stigmatize, and harass the poor by questioning their morality and their values. The labeling of the poor as moral inferiors, which has also been stepped up in the last 15 years, blames them falsely for the ills of the American society and economy, reinforces their mistreatment, increases their misery, and further discourages their moving out of poverty."
Gans offers no quick fixes. He calls for studying long-term economic and social policy. He suggests massive job creation and preservation policies--and this will meet with heavy resistance in some quarters--government intervention to a much greater degree. "Public works would need to turn into a permanent instituion, often trying desperately to create production opportunities for new employment, public and private."
He sees the possibility that full-time work may have to cease, with the normal work week shrinking to 24 hours or less, to a shorter work year or work life that retains the present work week.
Gans is no Freeman or Luddite. He says that technological innovation must be preserved in a new society. "Also worth saving are the technologies that have increase the intellectual level of work, the quality of health care, and the like, and many of the machines that have increased the comforts of everyday life."
With the end of full-time jobs, Gans outlines a new American way of life that will provide a livable economy and a society that can "most likely exist only with more equality of all kinds for everyone."
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