Perspectives on Poverty

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The following sources each contain a perspective on poverty in relation to wealth inequality in the United States between the years 1880 and 1950.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York(1902)

“Where God builds a church the devil builds next door–a saloon, is an old saying that has lost its point in New York. Either the devil was on the ground first, or he has been doing a good deal more in the way of building.” (211)

Jacob Riis explores how the lower classes of American society survive in his book How the Other Half Lives. This book sheds light on the poor living conditions endured by the working class in New York at the turn of the century. Riis uses his first-hand research into other people’s experiences to compile this book likely intended to spread awareness of the issue of poverty. In this book, Riis covers several impoverished groups in New York City, many of them struggling due to their ethnicity. He covers Italian immigrants being deceived by predatory loans and promises of employment as well as the Jewish population being crowded inhumanely in a place known as “Jewtown.” The accounts of poverty written by Riis demonstrates that side of wealth inequality and is particularly enlightening because it focuses on multiple groups.

The Workingman’s Conception of Industrial Liberty(1910)

“Liberty means more than the right to choose the field of one’s employment. He is not a free man whose family must buy food today with the money that is earned tomorrow.” 

The Workingman’s Conception of Industrial Liberty by John Mitchell is an interesting source for learning about limits on economic mobility. The purpose of this work is to appeal to the growing sense of want for industrial liberty during the progressive era. The author, John Mitchell, was head of the United Mine Workers. In this work, he talks about the struggle of the working man during this time, specifically his financial hardships and lack of economic mobility. Mitchell’s work is relevant in that it gives an account of difficulties on the lower end of the wealth spectrum and can be used to contrast with the lives of those on the upper end of the spectrum.

Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions, and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth. The Remedy(1926)

“The poverty which in the midst of abundance, pinches and embrutes men, and all the manifold evils which flow from it, spring from a denial of justice.” (490)

Henry George’s Progress and Poverty discusses the advancements of the American industry in relation to wealth creation and inequality. It acts as a warning of the dangers of wealth inequality as well as a suggestion for the reformation of the current system. The intended audience was anybody interested in economic development and wealth inequality. George covers the advancements made in wealth-producing power in the United States and explains how these advancements could have led to an evenly distributed financial gain but instead ended up mostly benefiting the wealthy. Advancements in technology should have made the lives of working-class laborers easier, but instead further trapped them and limited their economic mobility.